On January 12, the South lost one of its great culinary ambassadors, Nathalie Dupree. At eighty-five, the New Jersey–born, Southern-raised chef had written fifteen cookbooks; hosted over three hundred national and international cooking shows on the likes of PBS, Food Network, and The Learning Channel; and appeared countless times on Today and Good Morning America. Through it all, she championed the cuisine and ingredients of her beloved region.
Off camera, though, Dupree was even more generous with sharing her wisdom. She believed in what she called the “pork chop theory”—the idea that would-be competitors can always make room for one another and bring each other up, just as the fat from one pork chop feeds the other while they cook together in a pan.
Below, some of the beneficiaries of Dupree’s wisdom—and friendship—share what she taught them.
Lauren Furey, private chef and host of the SCETV show Now We’re Cookin’
Dupree and Furey.
When I was working as Nathalie’s apprentice, we made a lot of biscuits together. I would catch her eating raw dough on occasion and she would offer me some, right before she said, “Oh and by the way, never eat raw dough!” She always had a joke up her sleeve. She encouraged me to cook with ingredients that were readily available in her kitchen and in her garden. I learned to be resourceful. She welcomed me into her home every morning and said, “Sweet pea, why don’t you go see what’s in the fridge, and we can practice a new recipe. Have we made…field peas yet? Cornbread sandwiches? Crispy collard stems? How about homemade caramel? Chicken and dumplings?”
She was so generous with her wisdom and time. Nathalie prioritized gathering people, whether around a dinner table or within the community. She spent much of her time connecting people. She was thoughtful and purposeful. She taught me to stay organized. We made time charts that organized all of our cooking tasks in order to be prepared for dinner parties. I loved helping her entertain. I was grateful and excited to wash her dishes, cook with her, or interact with her guests. As long as I was with Nathalie, all was right in the world. I now use time charts with all of my private parties that I cook as a private chef in Charleston and throughout the Lowcountry. The time charts also helped me plan my cooking videos for my digital show.
David Shields, culinary historian and author
A memorable woman.
I remember sitting in the dining room of Nathalie’s house on Queen Street. We were talking about the old pungent Creole onions. Some scientist had recently identified syn-Propanethial-S-oxide as the irritant that made people cry when peeling onions. “Whatever it is, holding an unlit kitchen match between your teeth, head sticking out, will prevent that gas from getting to you,” Nathalie said. I tried it, and it worked.
Let’s call this story “a new Southern vegetable”: I had given her some heirloom benne seeds that she planted in her Queen Street garden along the side of her porch. When the seed pods formed, she looked at them, thinking they were tender and green and looked delicious. So she picked them, sliced them up, and sauteed them in olive oil. She phoned me excitedly to say, “They taste wonderful.” So wonderful that none of the pods lasted to produce benne seeds.
Carroll Leggett, food writer
When a friend and I visited her home, she insisted that on the next trip we would stay with Jack and her. I thought how nice it was for her to offer that. Then I realized she meant it! She thrived on company and having a stir around her, or maybe she just took to heart the Biblical exhortation: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” A lesson for all of us.
Peter Hairston and I took Nathalie and Jack to dinner in Charleston. We met them at the restaurant, and at the table we presented her with fresh slices of country ham from Ronnie’s Country Store here in Winston-Salem, still wrapped in butcher paper. On a trip to Winston-Salem where she gave a biscuit-making demo, we sent her home with a package from Ronnie’s full of authentic country goodness. On a later trip to Winston-Salem, she asked to shop at Ronnie’s and returned home with her suitcase stuffed with yellow eye peas, ham hocks, cured side meat, and other vittles. That night in Charleston, she immediately unwrapped the ham, took out a center-cut slice, draped it across her hand there in the middle of the restaurant, savored the aroma, and then passed the slice around for everyone to admire. The icing on the cake was this lesson in love, respect, and admiration: When we left, the entire staff of the restaurant lined up at the door to shake her hand and wish her good night. They knew they had entertained someone many are now calling Southern culinary royalty!
Ricky Moore, James Beard Award–winning chef and owner of Saltbox Seafood Joint in Durham, North Carolina
Thank you, Nathalie Dupree. Your contribution and work has been invaluable to all of us who champion Southern cooking and its foodways. We have all benefited from your writings and cookbooks about our beloved regional cuisine. The wonderful jewels of advice you shared with me, I shall never forget.
Virginia Willis, James Beard Award–winning cookbook author, television personality, and recipe developer
What a force of nature! Loved her to pieces. She has mentored me since I was twenty-five years old, and cooking for her eightieth birthday celebration will be a highlight of my career. She was the first person who took Southern food and cooking to a national audience, first through her appearances on the syndicated show PM Magazine and later through her numerous PBS series. She was a celebrity chef before national television was featuring Southern cuisine, and certainly before it was featuring women. She lifted up women in the culinary industry. She was a founder of the Atlanta and Charleston chapters of Les Dames d’Escoffier. She was a champion of women, a feminist, and taught me and many of her other “chickens” how to be successful.
In the mid-90s, Nathalie visited me while I was living and working at École de Cuisine La Varenne with Anne Willan in northern Burgundy. It is a favorite memory because she and I often laughed about it over the years, including the last time I saw her, just months ago. We had a glorious lunch at L’Espérance, a renowned three-star Michelin hotel restaurant. We were dressed to the hilt, and she had on a gorgeous winter white suit with her signature pearls.
Chef Marc Meneau had a famous amuse-bouche that was a golden brown deep-fried cube of foie gras that liquified in the fryer. They were elaborately presented on trays by multiple waiters in concert, accompanied by pressed linen napkins, with instructions to eat the entire cube at once. Nathalie did not, and was immediately doused in molten oil. She burst out laughing, not bothered at all about the mess. She was a mess in the kitchen, too, covered in flour or dropping things. Viewers felt like she was one of them.
Matt Lee and Ted Lee, cookbook authors
We will miss her so much! We were lucky to live a few doors down from Nathalie and Jack on Queen Street for a stretch, and she was the best of neighbors, encouraging us to help ourselves to herbs in her garden or bananas from her tree and loaning us cookware from her prodigious collection. Nathalie was also the best of mentors—and the sheer generosity with which she shared her knowledge and experience (and her home!) with young writers and culinarians was a model of how to be, and build community, in the world. We’re so sad for this loss and for Jack, but the number of people now offering testimony of how much she’s touched their lives makes us think she’d definitely want us all to be celebrating, so we’re whipping up a batch of pimento cheese and cracking open a fresh Caffeine-Free Diet Coke in her honor!
Kevin Mitchell, author, culinary historian, chef-instructor at the Culinary Institute of Charleston
What I admired about her the most was the fact that she was a selfless, giving person. I worked with her many times and there were so many things I learned from her. She was a true lover of Southern cuisine and that will stay with me forever.
When I first came to Charleston, she was one of the first chefs I met. She opened her home and heart to me and was always supportive of the work I did. She was always willing to offer her advice whenever I needed it. Her advice was paramount in the writing of Taste the State South Carolina, and she made sure we did not leave things out in the upcoming Taste the State Georgia. When she heard I had been accepted to continue my education and get my Southern Studies degree at the University of Mississippi, she once again opened her home and heart to encourage me.
Matt Moore, cookbook author
Nathalie spent her lifetime dedicated to promoting Southern cuisine to the rest of the world, but perhaps more importantly, she played a definitive role in the advocacy for women in the movement.
When I had my first opportunity to write a major cookbook, I sought endorsements from heroes who might lay claim and legitimacy to A Southern Gentleman’s Kitchen. I was in shock when I learned that Nathalie would graciously bestow her endorsement, for which I am forever grateful. But the truth is, Nathalie exuded southern hospitality and generosity by sharing her time, recipes, and skills with so many.
When I finally met Nathalie while judging a cooking contest in south Georgia, I quickly discerned she both told tall tales and bold truths at equally the same time—neither of which I could fully discern—which made her mystique all the more legendary.
Susi Gott Séguret, food writer
I will always think of Nathalie Dupree surrounded by gold, as she was on the day I dropped in on her, only a few short years ago, in the apartment she created for herself and Jack and Kitty when they left Charleston to come to Raleigh. She had recently downsized from her elegant townhouse on Queen Street to a space that required parting with many of her books and a lifetime’s accumulation of cooking vessels. I had come to interview her for a piece in G&G, and her joie de vivre rang out in every corner of her newly arranged domain, which of course was overseen by Kitty; what is a home without a cat?
Nathalie was witty, warm, charming, embracing, generous, spirited, dedicated to making the world a more colorful and delicious place to live. She gave me permission by example to stack up books on every spare surface of every counter, including kitchen counters and even the bed, and definitely the stairs and living room floor. She also gave me permission to be fearless, to lead with determination, and to dare to stand in the spotlight if that is what is required to get things done.
Her elegance and eloquence were a constant at every juncture of her eight and a half well-lived decades. Her ability to turn any space into a haven where you might want to curl up with a book or a cup of tea or a glass of sherry illustrates that it isn’t the place that matters; it is the person—or people—who inhabit that place.
As such, she’ll be cooking up pork chops at the Pearly Gates in no time, forever feasting with us in spirit…and we will raise a glass to her again and again!
