I love watching Paula Deen....but...I don't like it when she licks off a spatula or fork then gets someone else to take a bite...yuck! Am I the only one that notices that she does this? I would think the food network would step up and say something to her...?

I think its gross too!

maybe it is part of her"homey" charm. The set she uses in at least one of her shows is her real home kitchen.

I got to meet her once ! She is such a lovely lady!!!

I don't like that either. I always use a clean spoon to sample my creations. I think it's part of her charm too. I like Paula Deen but don't cook any of her recipes unless I make them healthier.

Even grosser, this lady in one of my cake decorating classes kept the tip of her bag in her mouth when she wasn't using them. Her response was, "it's just my family that's eating the cake." Gross me out.

I don't care for that either but I took her cooking class and she didn't do that once in her class. I wonder sometimes if she might change spoons and they just don't show it or if it is just her style.

Edited to add: wgoat you are right. She is really a nice person and she took all the time in the world for signing books and taking pictures. Our class was supposed to be over at noon and we didn't leave until almost 2:00.

I think that since, for the most part, the people that 'taste' stuff for her are her sons and husband, if they don't mind, it shouldn't be an issue. I know of many homes where you taste out of the bowl... and why dirty another spoon if you don't have to?

Now, if I'm baking/cooking for folks I'm not related to... WHOLE different story! But if its' just family, fingers, spoons, and even a nose or two have been known to go into the batter. (the nose was a two-year-old who took a swan dive into the batter bowl the first time he smelled pineapple upside down cake batter...)

Some folks think it's gross.. others.. it's just the way we grew up, I guess.

Paula Deen's my hero... anyone who starts a recipe with 'now, you take a pound of butter...'

*happy sigh*

I really like Paula Deen, but I was grossed out when she stuck her tongue in the chocolate fountain and had a guest in the audience come up and do the same. My husband never watches Foodnetwork with me, but wouldn't you know that this was the one time he actually watched. He was horrified and still talks about that. He says he can't believe she did something so ridiculous and unsanitary on national TV. In my family, I do not teach my kids to eat or drink after each other. I hear a lot about meningitis and other illnesses on the news so we try to be safe and not eat or drink after each other and wash our hands constantly.

I know, I'm not sure what they think it accomplishes. I guess when it's just for her and her family....

I do love her shows, I wish I could eat that way, my hips just cant take it. It all looks so good! She seems so fun.

At home, we are teaching our kids to use a serving utensil and then to use their own utensils from there. (we have a 5 and 3 yr old - not counting 3 months old just yet).

When we cook or bake we already use all the spoons for tasting. I can't wait until all 3 of my boys are helping at the same time, we'll have to start cleaning spoons just for tasting...

We entertain a lot, we are always making food that we share with Family and friends so we keep our food free of fingers and no spoon licking allowed!!

Oh well to each their own!

Good Luck

I've noticed a lot of this kind of thing on the food network - people dipping their fingers in to taste and licking them then dipping them back in, etc. It doesn't really bother me so much, which I find strange.

The choclate fountain thing just gagged me! I too LOVE Paula Deen! Butter in everything! Awwwll instead of oil! That's how we say it. My 9 y/o Son (my Sous Chef) even says, "Mom, is it time to put in the Awwlll yet?" Cracke me up. I love how she giggles when she tastes her food. It shows how much she enjoys it! I'm not eating it so it doesn't bother me. The chocolate fountain thing just kind of did my head in! I still love her!

Elle

I agree any recipe that starts with a pound of butter....well is my kind of recipe

Anythingsugar you lucky girl you!!! I wanna take a class with her

I do looove Paula Deen! She reminds me of a great friends mother-just laughing all the time with that southern accent. I did not see the chocolate fountain thing, but that would have grossed me out. My 10 year old twins often watch FN with me and I try to teach them to be clean-boy that would have gone out the window if they saw that! At least it is Paula's party-parties are fun!!!!

We do watch Ace of Cakes, and really, the decorators do not seem the cleanest, with their hair hanging down into their scroll work, scratching a beard and then pushing their hair back in between their decorating. Even my 10 year olds notice that!

Sweetiemama

Food network...I can deal

My MIL stickin' it back in the stinkin' pot?!? Not so much!

Blech!

Just the other day on the food network Mr. Brown was talking about olives. It shows him at a store that had an olive bar and he was going around the buffet sticking his hands in almost every one of the olive containers. When I saw Paula Deen stick her tongue in the chocolate fountain, I could not believe they had not cut that out of the show.

I watched her show for the first time today with hubby. I was disgusted by the behavior. Unreal.

okay... yeah... cooking in her home for a show, where the only tasters are people she's close enough to and know she sticks fingers in and licks spoons, that's one thing.

Sticking your face in a chocolate fountain that's serving lots of people... eeeewwww! I might do it after the party, if it's just me and my sweetie cleaning up, but that's different... we'd be the last ones playing with the chocolate.

wgoat I gotta tell you ...I loved every second of it! My DH gave me and my daughter a cooking class with Paula for Christmas. It was the best gift ever. I met her, Jamie and Bobby and they all were so nice and friendly. Paula talked to us just like we were her closest friends and she had known us forever. I just love her!!

i was watching her show today on candy, and she asked the guest that she had on if the chocolate wheel was sharp and he said no. She proceded to lick the chocolate wheel, it was so discusting!

It's so funny that someone bought this up, because today I was watching one of her Paula's Party episodes and I was like "what in the world is FN thinking". I think that she seems like one of the sweetest people on the planet and is a person that I would love to meet, but as for eating at the show I think I would take one of the seats in the back so that I don't get offered something that she has "slobbered" all over. The other day she was making candy and she wrapped the candy "snake" around her neck and took a bite and then offered the people in the front row to taste, THEY WERE ALL BITTING OFF OF THE SAME PIECE!!!! I was, are these people for real, I have no cotton picking clue who any of these people are and they are all happy eating off of her neck and all. YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!!!! I do love her though and think that she has so much knowledge and love of food.

As for ACE OF CAKES, I don't know how in the world this guy is still in business. I love the designs and his creativity, to me he has a talent that is incredible, but as for cleanliness, I DON'T KNOW. I see them playing and touching and all kinds of stuff and than they get right back to the cakes. You see them playing and goofing off and in the same shot they go right back to their area and continue on their work, no cleaning themselves or nothing. I know that they can't show everything all the time but when you see them doing something and then go straight to the cake it is just nasty. The cakes are fabulous, unmatched, amazing,....... can't say enough about how great they are, but again when you see their working habits, it makes you wonder about them. Like someone mentioned before, the have their hair everywhere, they touch body parts and I don't know their appearance it just seems, Yucky.

I think that these people are very talented, knowledgeable, gifted, professional CHEFS but they really don't act like it, and not that they have to be stiff about the way that they teach. They can show their personalities all the way, but they can do it in a sanitary way, they are on national television, show some professionalism.

That is just my two cents on that one.

Vicky

I love watching Paula's Party. I have noticed how she eats off the same utensil and then feeds someone from the audience with the same fork. I would never do it, and since I'm not having to eat what she makes it doesn't matter to me.

I like watching her for the entertainment

Does anyone realize that that show (which I did see for the 3rd time today) that not everyone ate out of that chocolate fountain? Nothing was served to the people with spit on it. And frankly if you don't want to watch something turn it off, why complain about it? There was a thread here about Sandra Lee and her breasts - people had a problem with that and the fact that she drinks alot... well that thread got locked and deleted. What if Paula Deen was a close friend or family member of someone here on CC? How do you think they feel hearing people say such things about her like this. What if Paula herself was on this site just like Duff and his people are? Wouldn't you all be embarassed that she read your remarks?

The way I see it is, she's a very charming southern lady, who has her own way of doing things, no one seems to be sueing her for anything and she's not in the paper everytime you turn around for doing or saying something... so she seems like a winner to me! I'm sure it's all for the show of things, that it's for the reaction and the WOW factor that she does what she does, and I honestly don't see anything wrong with it, it's not like she spit in it or licked a chocolate bar and fed it to someone, she took a bite off a fork using her teeth not her lips or tongue and then proceeded to demonstrate the dipping process... I don't recall - I could be wrong but don't recall seeing her feed anyone with THAT SAME fork.

She has her own resturant and it's never been in the media or the news that she's being sued for anything or that her habits are unhealthy or unsanitary. I highly doubt she's like that in her resturant and when she's entertaining at home.

I feel that she is being herself and sharing in her love with others who have the same love for the same things.

Let me be the first to say I'd gladly and happily share a chocolate fountain lick right with her! I love her and she is my idol! I hope to meet her one day and hope to be a guest on her Paula's Party show. My husband has even looked into getting me tickets to her show and driving me out there since I don't fly lol.... I swear that woman is my real momma lol. But yeah I think some of the harsh comments should be kept to yourselves... we learned it in school people....

"If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all"

Don't know about Michigan law-I am in Michigan and I make cakes for family and friends now. I can't imagine making a cake with gloves on. I also work in a hospital and can't imagine NOT wearing gloves for that. But one thing is for sure...I am not pushing my bangs back and scratching my head while I decorate my cakes!
Even if they are editing the handwashing-it would make me wonder if I were a customer....
Sweetiemama

I caught the BUTTER show she did. I thought it was hilarious!! The butter wranglers!! She was eating them up too!!

Paula Deen irks the crap out of me and her sons give me a brain aneurism.. Can't stand them at ALL!! But all of that aside.. I don't mind if family tastes the food and puts the spoon back in.. I mean we all have the same cooties. Now I can't say that I would want to dive into a chocolate fountain after someone licked it..

Amen, OhMyGoodies! I don't get to catch her show often, but when I watch her, or any other cooking show, I'm watching for knowledge and inspiration! I can see where some people are coming from, but I really only cook & bake for myself, my family, and my co-workers (who are like my extended family). If my goodies were being sold to people I didn't know, I would probably have a different attitude.