I'm somewhere in the middle.

I normally don't really have an opinion, but I voted "leave her" solely based on this frightening picture.

Like most celebrity personalities I can only handle them in small doses.

Love her. if you've ever heard how she came up from nothing and her life story how can you not.

same for me esk, and she is unapologetic about being exactly who she is -- have to respect that, and she's hysterical

Leave her!

love paula!

Leave her. I really dislike her. Plus I can't stand to listen to her voice for more than two seconds. It's like nails down a chalkboard for me.

That woman scares the crap out of me. From the way she cooks (fried butter queen) to her face and its many expressions.... holy moly.

Love her!

She is who she is. I don't dislike her, but I don't love her. Her cooking is pretty scary, but it's everyone's choice as to whether they put the whole three sticks of butter in. *shrug*
It's Rachel Ray I can't stand.

All the people who don't like her are just jealous..that's how it always is.
The woman OBVIOUSLY has some skills, talent and a gregarious personality..otherwise she wouldn't have made it as far as she has in TV. All those people who are haters are usually the gossipy miserable insecure types who generally don't like much of anything and always have too much of a negative opinion on most everything. Paula Deen's lived life and is enjoying her later years..and many people do love her so all the haters should just get a life.

I am SO glad you posted this! I've always felt kinda indifferent about her, yet I can't figure out what it is about her. Like dootsie said though, she is who she is. I must add that there's rarely a recipe of hers that I would actually use. I mean of course butter makes everything taste good (I admit her dishes are drool-worthy!), but healthwise I wouldn't be too proud.

I voted lover her but really it is more I don't want to leave her. I think she is colorful and a woman that stands on her own. I can totally see someone not liking her though and finding her "y'alls" and such a bit much.

I'm not a "love her" or a "leave her". Sometimes she can be a bit much for me. I could never watch more than one episode of her show, for example, but my mom has made some of her recipes and let me tell you, that woman knows what she is doing in the kitchen.

I love her! She makes no apologies for who she is, her food while fattening looks delicious, and she loves her man and her sons and her grandson and you can tell that! The one problem I have with her is that she's always talking about how dumb she is, a woman who has come as far as she has isn't dumb!

She scares the living daylights out of me. Not to mention I've seen her be incredibly unhygienic on her shows, which is disgusting. Considering how obese this nation is becoming, I think we should put away the deep friend cream cheese/butter. If I never saw her again, I'd be perfectly happy.

Sorry, Not a Paula Dean fan.
I have nothing against her personally, as I don't know anything about her or her past (her voice makes me cringe though), but I did catch 2 of her shows ... WOW. Butter in everything! Lard, fat-back, and anything else that could clog an artery; comes to mind. I believe she's popular because because of your snappy comments and witty remarks/comments. She's quick at a wip, as some say.

Leave her.

Love her but then again I'm southern girl. That's how some of our speech and mannerisms are almost exaggerated. Her past that she overcame makes her the success of who she is now. I admire that out of anybody. Her food isn't the most healthy but I'm a meat and carb loving girl. I grew up eating this way I'm not gonna stop just do in smaller amounts.

I like her. She's a self-made woman. She developed her own success (and was a single Mom of two children). Not every woman can do that, and she deserves credit for it.

Her cooking is another story. I'm a health geek, so her recipes would not work for me. Aside from that, I do admire her as a person.

Leave her.
I think she's adorable, but her food is too unhealthy to really earn my love.

If she didn't have the accent I think I could like her. She seems super sweet and her food seems delicious, if unhealthy, but her accent just really irritates me.
As GlowingMoon said she definitely deserves her success and I think it's great and wish her the best of luck in the future.

If you watch her in her earlier shows, she was much more enjoyable. She was sweet, but lately she's turned saccharine. She's more of a product or persona now, definite cult of personality for the "this is why you're fat" crowd.

I love her. She was on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me this week too. She's fabulous.

I love her recipes (Some of it), and watching her make all those food (no matter how BAD it is for your health--butter frying, and such) just makes me drool, oh look so yum.
I do write down some of her recipes, and when I cook them for my family, I try to make them 'healthier' by substituting a lot of stuffs or eliminating some ingredients.
But when it comes party potluck time (which is rare), I'd do her recipe to the T and people loved the food LOL.

I love her, but I'm afraid she's a bit of a caricature as well.
And while watching her make a lasagna sandwich (pretty much on a WHOLE loaf of garlic bread - I can't imagine how anyone could eat that much carb) was amazingly entertaining, I worry that she promotes the idea that this is a normal way to eat.

I love her! She reminds me of my grandma, who's from Alabama. And yeah, my grandma does have a very thick Southern accent, which I guess some people find annoying or whatever. I think it's endearing, lol. I used to ask my grandma how to say o-i-l when I was a kid just to hear her reply "Awl", LOL. But yeah, Paula is definitely a hard-working woman and made something out of herself after overcoming some pretty big obstacles in her life. Plus, you can tell she thinks the world of her family and friends...how could you not love her?

Her recipes, on the other hand, are not usually what I cook anymore. My grandma and all my other Southern relatives do indeed cook like that and while it's pretty tasty, I just don't use that much butter/lard/shortening/pork fat in my own cooking.

I think she's hysterical. I really care about what I eat and would not be so shameless with butter now, but when I turn 65, my plan is to go the Paula Deen route and just add "buttah" to everything.

I couldn't eat her food everyday, but I adore her personality. Love.

All I know is I LOVE her kitchen on her show !!

I like the food she makes, but her accent just seems too forced and over-the-top. I can only watch for a minute or two before I change the channel

# 1 reason for not having annon. comments on here. they lead to those idiotic "you're jealous" responses. just because somebody doesn't like somebody, that doesn't mean they're jealous. sorry, HUGE pet peeve.

i don't like her or any of the other food network hosts. i find them to be annoying or boring.

her food is generally disgusting (shrimp and banana casserole styly) but she's fun to watch. i suspect more than an average amount of the entertainment value with her lies in the "ha ha hillbilly" vein.

She's a phoney. It's all an act. Can't stand her.

I want to know why they list her as a chef, when in fact she has never went to a culinary school.
If I was a chef I would be insulted that they list a home cook as a chef!

A chef is not someone who simply went to culinary school. There are many people who did not go to school who are AMAZING chefs, and there's definitely more than enough people who slid by in culinary school who I wouldn't let cook for me in a million years. So just because she didn't go to school doesn't make her any less of a chef.
Not that you'll see any of this, because you're an obnoxious anonymous commenter...

As for Paula Deen, I like her. Not necessarily LOVE her, but she's ok.

She reminds me of someone you think about hanging out with because you want to know more about them or just peek inside their lives then you do and it's what you expect but then they want you to come over all the time and you regret it. I like her home cooking though so love her, I can get passed the "act".

I'm from the South and have a very thick accent much like Paula's. In order to be as famous as she is, a bit of a character is required. However, I find it interesting/funny that so may posts call her fake and even yum sugar cringes- yet there is a whole section of this site devoted to following the Hills...

Leave her (and take the sons with her!)

She reminds me of the character that played on "Reba", as Reba's ex-husbands new wife. Annoying.

I wouldn't necessarily follow her recipes, but I love her. She cheers me up like no one else!

I love her! She's so real and is not afraid to use heaps of butter, haha! If only I could be so daring ; P

I find her to be pretty obnoxious and I normally avoid her recipes due to the fact that each one seems to call for 1lb of butter, but the woman certainly can cook!

If you have issues with her, it's more than likely because you are not from the South. Her food is very home-style southern cooking, which is wonderful. She uses recipes we all use down here, and the ones we don't have that we get from her are awesome. If you think her accent is phony, you have never been to Georgia...enough said. She seems very warm and loving, as well as cooking from the heart. I don't see how it could get much better

I live in the South and have HAD IT with Paula, same as I did with Emeril and also with Rachael Ray. OVERexposure and little diversity in cuisine, and not much healthy to eat. Blech. I'm sick of sour cream, butter and garlic.

Bring back Sarah Moulton...

I love her to pieces. I try and cut back on the butter (sometimes, anyway. Butter *is* delicious, and I go to the gym so I can eat it if I want, lol!), but seriously? That lady has some serious kitchen skills.

I may not exactly agree with the amount of butter she puts on things, but I love her. Shes funny and knows how to have a good time.

p.s. shes really funny to watch if your high.

LOVE paula deen, but HATE her recipes

I admire anyone who has a dream and goes for it

I love her. She's totally unapologetic and hilarious, and her red velvet cupcake recipe is the best I've ever tried.