Family Affair
Jamie and Bobby Deen have followed in their famous mother’s footsteps

Bobby (left) and Jamie Deen used to deliver sandwiches that their mother, Food Network star Paula Deen, made for customers. Since then, the brothers have had their own Food Network show and cook book.

Jamie and Bobby Deen may never overshadow their mother, Paula Deen, a Food Network star. But that’s OK with them.

“It’s very rewarding to know our Mom worked so hard and it paid off,” Bobby Deen said recently in a telephone interview from Savannah, Ga. “It’s a real kick to see her sit down with Oprah, go on Larry King Live.”

Paula Deen has become almost a household name as a result of her shows, Paula’s Home Cooking and Paula’s Party, as well as her cookbooks and restaurant.

But long before Deen was famous, her sons were working beside her.

“If you go back to the beginning, 18 years ago, it was the three of us,” Jamie Deen said.

Jamie Deen is now 40 and his brother is 37.

Even before they and their mom owned a restaurant — not coincidentally named The Lady & Sons — the (then-college-age) Deen brothers delivered the sandwiches that she made in her home kitchen for her first food business, when she was known as “The Bag Lady.” They followed her into her first restaurant in a Best Western and then into The Lady & Sons, which they now manage in Savannah.

The brothers are right there on the cover with their mom on her first three books, too: The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook; The Lady & Sons, Too; and The Lady & Sons Just Desserts.

Dry Rub Baby-Back Ribs:
- 1 tablespoon paprika - 1½ teaspoons packed dark brown sugar - 1½ teaspoons finely grated orange zest - 1½ teaspoons salt	- 1¾ teaspoons ground cumin - ½ teaspoon ground black pepper - ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper - 4 pounds baby back ribs, cut into 2-rib portions
1. In a small bowl, stir together all the ingredients except the ribs. Rub spice mixture all over the ribs. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 24 hours. 2. Heat overn to 400 degrees. Place ribs in a roasting pan. Bake for 1 hour. Makes 6 servings.

Once Paula Deen’s star started to rise with her television appearances, it was the sons who ran the restaurant. But in the past two years, the Deen brothers’ stars have risen, too. They got their own Food Network show, Road Tasted, and have released The Deen Bros. Cookbook: Recipes from the Road (Meredith Books, $24.95), co-written with Melissa Clark.

Just as Paula Deen was banned from the dining room of her own restaurant because mobs of fans would disrupt the business of serving food, her sons now have to do the same.

“I used to bus tables, greet people, all that,” Bobby Deen said, “and I really miss it.”

The brothers don’t plan to tape any new episodes of Road Tasted, in part because Jamie Deen, who became a father last year, wants to spend more time close to home.

Road Tasted was an update of a former Food Network show called Food Finds that featured noteworthy food businesses around the country. But the Deens improved upon Food Finds by traveling to the featured businesses and hanging out with the owners and cooks.

“Jamie and I wanted to feature … people who were doing what we did,” Bobby Deen said, “and that appealed to viewers, too.”

Their book takes its cue from the show with chapters devoted to the places and people they visited. But the 100 or so recipes, developed with Clark, a veteran cookbook author, do not copy foods from the show. Instead, they are inspired by the many new foods they sampled as they visited such places as Seattle; Boulder, Colo.; and Napa, Calif.

A visit to Key West got the Deen brothers hooked on coconut milk, which ended up in a recipe for mango coconut rice. A trip to Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels in Chicago inspired a cheesy pretzel-dipping sauce. Visiting Veniero’s Italian pastry shop in Manhattan led the Deens to create strawberry cannoli parfaits.

Other recipes in the book include coconut fried shrimp, ginger-ale glazed ham, lobster rolls, Greek dolma salad and mini whoopee pies.

Bobby Deen said he became particularly fond of dry rubs while taping the show, so he includes a recipe for dry-rub baby-back ribs. He’s also fond of the book’s simple fish fajitas and an unusual margarita that includes beer.

Jamie Deen, who has a sweet tooth “or maybe two,” really loves the multilayered chocolate truffle pie. He also loves the Lowcountry boil in the book, and he said he has made the mango coconut rice over and over again because he likes it so much.

The brothers don’ t know what kind of television they will do in the future, other than guest appearances on Paula’s Home Cooking. They said that it’s possible that Road Tasted will continue with Bobby and another co-host, or that they may develop another show.

They are working on another book, one that will be more personal, with Southern dishes they’ve been eating all our lives.

“You know, Mom’s had this opportunity to go on television,” Jamie Deen said. “She’s so identifiable to people, a normal woman who’s faced challenges, and now she’s living the American dream.

“Bobby and I never imagined ourselves in the media. We’re still hometown boys.”

– By Michael Hastings
• Hastings is the food editor for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina, a Media General, Inc. publication.