Did Paula Deen LIE That She Invented Doughnut Burgers?

Back in October, grease queen Paula Deen went on Leno and claimed she had invented the infamous doughnut hamburger saying that it "came by accident." It was a bold attempt at revisionist hamburger history, as the doughnut burger dates back to at least 2003. But today in an interview her two sons Bobby and Jamie Deen threw her under a burgery bus and admitted that it's "not her recipe" and instead a "spoof" on a "Minor League Baseball thing."

Deen's infamous doughnut burger, "The Lady's Brunch Burger," appeared in an episode of Paula's Home Cooking back in 2008. In the video Deen says, "I've never done this before, y'all, in my entire life." And as part of Deen's healthy misinformation campaign (post her diabetes diagnosis) she went on Leno and talked about her most "decadent recipe." She claimed, "It came by accident, it happened by accident y'all..." and that on a whim she decided to use doughnuts instead of hamburger buns because they were "harder than my arteries."

In an interview with the Daily Meal, Jamie was asked about doughnut burger. He said:

You know what's funny is that's not her recipe. That was a Minor League Baseball thing, and my mom did like a spoof on it. That's the only thing that really bothered me was they gave us credit for that recipe but it wasn't even our recipe. The Minor League Baseball team did one of those things, you make the craziest things you can think of. So they made a cheeseburger on a donut. And it was on the national news cycle for about five minutes and somebody from our production team put it together. I have never tasted or seen my mom ever make a Krispy Kreme cheeseburger in my life.

The "Minor League Baseball thing" that Jamie is referring to is the "Grizzlie Burger" that was served at the stadium of the Gateway Grizzlies, a Frontier League baseball team in Sauget, Illinois back in 2006. The doughnut hamburger is most commonly known as a "Luther Burger" — a bacon cheeseburger served on a Krispy Kreme doughnut bun — from the pub Mulligan's in Decatur, Georgia created in 2005. It was of course named after R&B singer Luther Vandross.

Deen credited her own imagination for the hamburger doughnut. But now her son, who's part of the family's newfound healthy campaign, is saying that credit should go to "somebody from our production team" who saw it on television. Paula Deen's son Jamie is either completely wrong, or he's setting the record straight.

· The Deen Brothers on Mama Paula Deen [Daily Meal]
· On Leno, Paula Deen Says She Invented Doughnut Burgers [-E-]
· All Paula Deen Coverage on Eater [-E-]
· All Novelty Burger Coverage on Eater [-E-]