Not his mama's meals

I suppose it's because Cooking Channel has a lower profile than its corporate sibling Food Network, but I'm really surprised that almost none of the coverage I've seen of Paula Deen's announcement this week that she has diabetes has mentioned her son Bobby's new TV show, "Not My Mama's Meals." I actually added a sentence about the show to the bottom of an Associated Press story which we ran in the paper.

To backtrack, for those of you who haven't heard: TV chef and Savannah restauranteur Paula Deen, famous for high-calorie, high-fat Southern cuisine and generous use of butter, announced this week that she was diagnosed with diabetes a couple of years ago. She's going to start endorsing a diabetes drug.

The reason that Bobby Deen's new show is relevant to the story is its premise: on the show, Bobby creates lower-calorie, lower-fat alternatives to some of his mother's signature dishes. The episodes I've seen have featured Paula Deen as well, either cooking alongside Bobby or turning up to taste the dishes once he's completed them.

For example, an episode started with Paula Deen's Krispy Kreme donut-based bread pudding. Bobby created a healthier bread pudding using whole-wheat donuts or muffins. He substituted yogurt for some of the mayonnaise in his mother's pimento cheese recipe, and so on.