IHA News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Deborah A.Teschke
Manager, Media Relations & Communications
847-692-0110

Food Network Star Paula Deen to Keynote 2008 International Home + Housewares Show

ROSEMONT, ILL (November 13, 2007)—Celebrity cook and Food Network star Paula Deen will present the keynote seminar on Sunday, March 16 to kick-off the 2008 International Home + Housewares Show. The Show will be held March 16-18 at McCormick Place in Chicago.

Deen’s presentation, “Paula Deen & The Charmed Consumer,” will begin at 7:30 a.m. in the Grand Ballroom/S100 of the South Building. The program is open to all Show attendees; no ticket or reservations are needed.

A former housewife from Albany, Ga., with no formal food training, Deen stars in two eponymous shows on the Food Network: “Paula’s Home Cooking,” which airs seven days a week and “Paula’s Party,” which airs on Friday nights. She is the author of six cookbooks and a memoir, “Paula Deen—It’ Ain’t All About the Cookin’,” which debuted in the top 10 on the New York Times bestseller list in spring 2007. In addition, her magazine, Cooking with Paula Deen, has a circulation of more than one million, and in June 2007, she received two Daytime Emmy awards, the first for Outstanding Lifestyle Host, and the second for Outstanding Lifestyle Show.

Living with agoraphobia (the fear of being in public places) for 20 years and a crumbling marriage, Paula Deen was left with two growing sons and no source of income. Without a college education, the then 42-year-old housewife reached deep into her Southern roots and drew inspiration from what she knew best—her kitchen stove. Her culinary career began in her kitchen in June 1989 with The Bag Lady, a home-based lunch delivery service featuring chicken salad sandwiches and warm, fresh cookies wrapped in grocery store plastic wrap. Her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen, served as delivery boys to sell to local businesses. Within two years, the business outgrew her home and Deen opened her first restaurant on Savannah, Ga.’s southside, called The Lady. Five years later, Deen re-located to downtown Savannah and opened The Lady & Sons, which to this day serves thousands of visitors, including celebrity and political clientele.

In 1997, Deen self-published her first cookbook, Favorite Recipes of The Lady and her Friends. After it was picked up by a major publishing house, the name was changed to The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook and Deen began selling the cookbook on QVC. Her career seemed to have no limits after QVC, and the rest is history.

The 2008 International Home + Housewares Show will feature more than 2,000 exhibitors in four Show expos: Dine + Design; Clean + Contain, including Promotion in Motion; Wired + Well; and Global Crossroads, the international pavilions. More than 60,000 total attendees from 104 countries around the world are expected. To register for the Show or for information on exhibiting, please visit www.housewares.org.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Download a hi resolution photo of Paula Deen here.

IHA is the 69-year-old voice of the housewares industry, which accounted for (US$)$283 billion at retail worldwide in 2004. The non-profit, full-service association sponsors the world's premier housewares products exposition, the International Home & Housewares Show, and offers its 1,700 member companies a wide range of services, including industry and government advocacy, export assistance, State-of-the-Industry reports, point-of-sale and consumer purchase data through Housewares MarketWatch, executive management peer groups, a unique Web-based community at www.housewares.org and group buying discounts on business solutions services.