The news this week that cooking teacher and best-selling author, Nathalie Dupree, had passed away at the age of 85 at her current home in Raleigh, North Carolina, spread throughout the southern states- and beyond- like an enormous thunderclap and dense cloud. Just about every southern cook and chef was touched by Nathalie, including us. Melanie grew up in Chattanooga and started her career in Atlanta in the early 1980s. Back then there was one go-to person to learn about southern cooking. That was Nathalie Dupree. Later on, whenever Melanie researched stories to write on southern dishes, she’d always call Nathalie, whom she called her “biscuit whisperer.”
Nathalie Dupree
For nearly a decade Nathalie founded and ran a cooking school in Rich’s Department Store in Atlanta which turned out more than 10,000 students in classes and apprenticeship programs, attracted a stellar list of guest instructors and produced graduates who’ve gone on to earn their own acclaim in the food industry. In 1984 Nathalie was elected president of the International Association of Cooking Schools, now the International Association of Culinary Professionals, with an agenda to set standards for the accreditation of cooking schools across the country.
Nathalie became the first women to have more television cooking shows than Julia Child– over 300 shows for The Food Network, PBS, and The Learning Channel. She was author of 15 cookbooks including the best-selling New Southern Cooking, Southern Memories and Comfortable Entertaining, Nathalie Dupree’s Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking and Southern Biscuits. The last two books were written with Cynthia Graubart. Four of Nathalie’s books received James Beard Foundation Awards. We keep Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking displayed on our cookbook shelf along with the treasured books of other cooking “masters” including Julia Child, Marcella Hazan and Jacques Pepin.
In addition to hosting her own television shows, Nathalie appeared on NBC Today, Good Morning America and CNN, and many others. She was featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Bon Appétit, Food and Wine, Southern Living, Coastal Living, Better Homes and Garden, Cosmopolitan, and Good Housekeeping.
After living for many years in Atlanta, Nathalie moved to Charleston, S.C. where she and her historian-husband, Jack Bass, entertained frequently in their yellow house on Queen Street. Nathalie hosted a party in our honor when Melanie was serving as president of the Les Dames d’Escoffier New York chapter. Nathalie was The Founding Chairman of the Charleston Food and Wine Festival, a founder of the Atlanta and Charleston Chapters of Les Dames d’ Escoffier, the American Institute of Wine and Food and the International Association of Culinary Professionals, of which she was two- time President. Nathalie was awarded the prestigious “Grand Dame” recognition by Les Dames d’Escoffier and 2013 Woman of the Year by a prestigious organization of French Chefs in America. She is a founder of the Southern Foodways Alliance which established a Nathalie Dupree Graduate Fellowship program in 2014.
We will always remember her broad smile, warm embrace, sharp wit and generosity. She called the cooks and apprentices who worked with her, “my chickens.” And she truly was the “mother hen.” When we all posed for photos at events, she’d tell us to say, “Sex.” Naturally, we all broke into broad smiles!
Nathalie taught us how to appreciate and master southern cooking and pass the plate of hospitality. Probably the one lesson everyone will remember and recall is Nathalie’s “pork chop theory” which goes like this: “One pork chop on a pan goes dry; two or more and the fat from one feeds the other.”
Tributes are pouring in this week. This week, we’ve decided to re-air our first show with Nathalie from February 2015 in her memory. She used to tell us, “If you are in a bind and need a guest, call me.” We always knew we could count on Nathalie for a great conversation. She was a friend to many, and we all thank her for sharing the fat
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