Staff Photo by Margaret Fenton Paula Deen and her husband, Michael Groover, sign autographs on Sunday afternoon before her cooking show during She: An Expo for Women.

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Paula Deen, the Food Network’s famed Southern chef, was amped to get back on the stage, under the lights at Sunday’s She: An Expo for Women.

The queen of Southern cuisine headlined the event Sunday afternoon, which brought more than 15,000 people to the Chattanooga Convention Center, the largest crowd Ms. Deen has ever performed for, she said.

Ms. Deen told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that she had gone two or three weeks without working, and it was causing a little anxiety.

“I’m really antsy to get back on stage. I miss it,” Ms. Deen said. “That electricity that I get from those folks is what I need to get up and go.”

Ms. Deen said much of her success could be attributed to her Southern upbringing. She said her start came soon after Sept. 11, 2001, a time, she said, that left many Americans vulnerable.

“It made us hunger for mama’s table and the security we felt when our feet were under our mother’s table,” Ms. Deen said. “So that was really what kind of got me a jump-start.”