Mr Uncle Leroy
All Star
Paula Deen has been accused of asking black kitchen workers to wear Aunt Jemima-style outfits while working in the restaurant that made her a star.
Dora Charles, Deen’s longtime chef, claimed that African American staff were also asked to ring a bell while hollering ‘come and get it’ in a throwback to the past.
Charles also alleged that she was paid just $10 an hour and had to endure the TV chef using racist language around her.
Deen, whose career is in freefall after admitting using the N-word, denied the claims and said that Charles was just after more money.
The claims will be another blow to Deen, who is currently scrambling to salvage what is left of her $17m a year empire over the race row.
She has been dropped by The Food Network along with corporate sponsors like Walmart, Home Depot, pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk and her book publisher - then fired her entire legal team.
Charles’ told the New York Times that she wanted to speak up now because she felt that the truth should come out about the woman who she once considered her ‘Soul Sister’.
She said: ‘It’s just time that everybody knows that Paula Deen don’t treat me the way they think she treat me’.
Her relationship with Deen goes back 22 years during which time she helped her make a success of her now famous Lady & Sons restaurant in Savannah, GA.
Charles did everything from developing recipes to training a new generation of Deen-style chefs and became an integral part of her empire.
But there was tension, not least when Deen supposedly asked Charles to ring a bell at the front of the restaurant when the food was ready.
Charles told the New York Times: ‘I said: ‘I’m not ringing no bell’. That’s a symbol to me of what we used to do back in the day.’
Better days: Deen is seen here at an appearance in Miami Beach. The TV chef is now accused of mistreating her staff and asking them to play racist stereotypes for the amusement of her houseguests
When Charles refused Deen asked another worker called Ineata Jones - who everyone apparently called Jellyroll - to do it.
An image of Jones doing it was made into a postcard and sold in Deen’s stores.
Jones was also asked to make hoecakes, corn patties which are served to every diner, and asked her to wear an Aunt Jemima outfit whilst she did so.
But Charles said that Jones ‘didn’t want to hear that’ and also refused.
Aunt Jemima is a brand of pancake flour that used to use racist pictures and slogans of a black female chef in its advertisements.
An image of a black woman is still used to advertise the product today.
Charles said that there were benefits to working for Deen, not least being part of a successful empire.
Their birthdays were a day apart so they celebrated together.
Charles’ friends got jobs with Deen, she sometimes got free clothes and got to go on Deen’s TV show on the Food Network.
Charles said: ‘I’m not trying to portray that she is a bad person.
‘I’m just trying to put my story out there that she didn’t treat me fairly and I was her soul sister.’
In a statement to the New York Times, Deen’s spokesman denied asking anybody to dress like Aunt Jemima and denied using racist words in relation to her staff.
According to a Deen spokesman: ‘Fundamentally Dora’s complaint is not about race but about money.
‘It is about an employee that despite over 20 years of generosity feels that she still deserves yet even more financial support from Paula Deen.’
Deen’s career went into meltdown last month when her admission about using the N-word was first reported.
It came during a 2010 deposition in a case brought by Lisa Jackson, a white manager working at Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House, the restaurant Deen set up for her brother Earl.
Asked if she had ever used the N-word, Deen said: ‘Yes, of course. But that's just not a word that we use.
‘I don't - I don't know. As time has gone on things have changed since the 60's in the south.'
In an attempt to stop the rot Deen appeared on NBC’s Today show but viewers were unmoved by her choreographed apology which went: ‘I is what I is and I’m not changing’.
Deen had already been criticised for her fat-laden recipes and was mocked when it emerged she is suffering from diabetes and became a spokeswoman for Novo Nordisk, which makes a drug which treats the condition.
MailOnline has reached out to Morgan Lewis, Deen’s new lawyers, for comment.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...r-Aunt-Jemima-style-outfit.html#ixzz2aPLrQFuD
Dora Charles, Deen’s longtime chef, claimed that African American staff were also asked to ring a bell while hollering ‘come and get it’ in a throwback to the past.
Charles also alleged that she was paid just $10 an hour and had to endure the TV chef using racist language around her.
Deen, whose career is in freefall after admitting using the N-word, denied the claims and said that Charles was just after more money.
The claims will be another blow to Deen, who is currently scrambling to salvage what is left of her $17m a year empire over the race row.
She has been dropped by The Food Network along with corporate sponsors like Walmart, Home Depot, pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk and her book publisher - then fired her entire legal team.
Charles’ told the New York Times that she wanted to speak up now because she felt that the truth should come out about the woman who she once considered her ‘Soul Sister’.
She said: ‘It’s just time that everybody knows that Paula Deen don’t treat me the way they think she treat me’.
Her relationship with Deen goes back 22 years during which time she helped her make a success of her now famous Lady & Sons restaurant in Savannah, GA.
Charles did everything from developing recipes to training a new generation of Deen-style chefs and became an integral part of her empire.
But there was tension, not least when Deen supposedly asked Charles to ring a bell at the front of the restaurant when the food was ready.
Charles told the New York Times: ‘I said: ‘I’m not ringing no bell’. That’s a symbol to me of what we used to do back in the day.’
Better days: Deen is seen here at an appearance in Miami Beach. The TV chef is now accused of mistreating her staff and asking them to play racist stereotypes for the amusement of her houseguests
When Charles refused Deen asked another worker called Ineata Jones - who everyone apparently called Jellyroll - to do it.
An image of Jones doing it was made into a postcard and sold in Deen’s stores.
Jones was also asked to make hoecakes, corn patties which are served to every diner, and asked her to wear an Aunt Jemima outfit whilst she did so.
But Charles said that Jones ‘didn’t want to hear that’ and also refused.
Aunt Jemima is a brand of pancake flour that used to use racist pictures and slogans of a black female chef in its advertisements.
An image of a black woman is still used to advertise the product today.
Charles said that there were benefits to working for Deen, not least being part of a successful empire.
Their birthdays were a day apart so they celebrated together.
Charles’ friends got jobs with Deen, she sometimes got free clothes and got to go on Deen’s TV show on the Food Network.
Charles said: ‘I’m not trying to portray that she is a bad person.
‘I’m just trying to put my story out there that she didn’t treat me fairly and I was her soul sister.’
In a statement to the New York Times, Deen’s spokesman denied asking anybody to dress like Aunt Jemima and denied using racist words in relation to her staff.
According to a Deen spokesman: ‘Fundamentally Dora’s complaint is not about race but about money.
‘It is about an employee that despite over 20 years of generosity feels that she still deserves yet even more financial support from Paula Deen.’
Deen’s career went into meltdown last month when her admission about using the N-word was first reported.
It came during a 2010 deposition in a case brought by Lisa Jackson, a white manager working at Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House, the restaurant Deen set up for her brother Earl.
Asked if she had ever used the N-word, Deen said: ‘Yes, of course. But that's just not a word that we use.
‘I don't - I don't know. As time has gone on things have changed since the 60's in the south.'
In an attempt to stop the rot Deen appeared on NBC’s Today show but viewers were unmoved by her choreographed apology which went: ‘I is what I is and I’m not changing’.
Deen had already been criticised for her fat-laden recipes and was mocked when it emerged she is suffering from diabetes and became a spokeswoman for Novo Nordisk, which makes a drug which treats the condition.
MailOnline has reached out to Morgan Lewis, Deen’s new lawyers, for comment.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...r-Aunt-Jemima-style-outfit.html#ixzz2aPLrQFuD
