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Paula Deen revisited her feud with late chef Anthony Bourdain in her new documentary — and she didn’t hold back.
In Canceled: The Paula Deen Story, which premiered on Saturday, September 6, at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, Deen, 78, addressed her past issues with Bourdain.
“God rest his soul,” Deen said in the film, according to Entertainment Weekly. “I felt like he didn’t like anybody. Not even himself, maybe.”
Deen also responded to comments Bourdain made about her through the years. Bourdain, who died by suicide in 2018, previously claimed Deen was a “dangerous” presence in American culture.
“The worst, most dangerous person to America is clearly Paula Deen,” he told TV Guide Magazine in 2011. “She revels in unholy connections with evil corporations, and she’s proud of the fact that her food is f****ing bad for you.”
Bourdain also argued Deen’s food “sucks.” Her son Bobby shut down the negative comments in Saturday’s doc, saying, “I think both are inaccurate.”
Deen, for her part, criticized Bourdain’s shows Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, which saw him traveling the world to try cuisines from different cultures.
“I don’t know what he was off in these foreign countries eating. Bat brains or something like that,” she fired back. “I think I’ll just stick with my fried chicken.”
The digs might sound familiar for those who saw Deen make similar comments during a 2011 appearance on The Joy Behar Show. “Let me tell you something, girlfriend,” she said at the time. “Maybe [my food] is bad for you, but I don’t go around eating or serving unwashed anuses of wildebeests.”
While Bourdain never publicly consumed bat brains, he was documented eating warthog anus when he traveled with indigenous Namibians in a No Reservation episode.
“Lesson one as a traveler: Food given as a gesture of hospitality is always gratefully accepted, always,” he said at the time. “Because no matter how weird or horrible it may seem to you, for someone else, it’s their means of subsistence.”
Despite her ongoing grievances with the late Bourdain, the doc later showed Deen expressing regret over their issues. “He started something with me, and I’d never even met him,” she noted.
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Canceled: The Paula Deen Story follows the rise and fall of Deen’s career, which began as a caterer. Deen became a wildly popular Food Network star, but she later found herself at the center of a racial-slur scandal.
“When they lay me down, I do not want my tombstone to say, ‘Here lies the body of a racist,'” she said in the doc. “I want my soul back. To lose your reputation is like losing your soul.”
Canceled: The Paula Deen Story is still awaiting distribution and a release date.
English (US) ·