Nathalie Dupree Was a Southern Food Icon and a Trailblazer of Celebrating Home Cooking

Cynthia Graubart
·7 min read

Photograph by Sully Sullivan

I arrived at Nathalie Dupree’s eclectic condo in midtown Atlanta in the waning days of 1985 to a study in minor chaos—dishes clanging in the kitchen, piles of cookbooks leaving barely a small footpath from the front door, Diet Cokes teetering on uneven surfaces, and stacks of faxes from Judith Jones, the famed book editor. A manuscript was overdue and a television contract would go a long way to smooth things over. She wanted a television show and she needed a producer. Thus was the start of our 40-year collaboration and friendship.

Settling in her later years into her role as grande dame and known for “authoring cookbooks and having once having been on television,” Nathalie has come to be called the originator of the new Southern cooking movement that began in the mid ’80s. Long before chefs from New York to LA were making tender, thick pork chops with muscadine jelly and creamy shrimp and grits, and long before today’s focus on hyper-regionalism, she was combining the bounty of the Southern pantry with classic French technique and celebrating small farmers, makers, and producers.

Jacques Pépin, Julia Child, Judith Jones, Alice Waters—Nathalie’s is not a name that naturally comes to mind, however, she was one of the icons. Nathalie was a trailblazer who celebrated home cooking and brought the heart of Southern cooking to a national audience through her 15 cookbooks, earning her three James Beard Foundation Media Awards, and selling nearly a combined million copies. She hosted more than 300 television episodes that aired on PBS, The Food Network, and The Learning Channel. On stage in 2013, to collect our James Beard Foundation Award for American Cooking for her magnum opus, Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking, she declared Southern cooking the “Mother Cuisine of America.”

Her more than 50-year career was dedicated to lifting up women in culinary fields, and today’s women in restaurants, catering kitchens, on culinary television, and beyond owe her a debt of gratitude for paving a smoother path, myself included.

Nathalie was unrelenting when it came to giving unsolicited advice to her mentees, affectionately referred to as her “chickens.” She would badger them to stick up for themselves, asking pointed questions about their savings, whether they were paying their taxes and social security, and their plans for the future. Her impact, and interest, extended far beyond the kitchen.

Her home kitchen was the training ground for dozens of eager interns. She took great pride in the accomplishments of her flock. Among the many are Virginia Willis, Rebecca Lang, Toni Tipton-Martin, and Anne Quatrano.

A Rocky Start, but a Clear Purpose

Despite her Coke-bottle-thick glasses, Nathalie’s future growing up wasn’t always clear. She was saddled emotionally and physically with the struggles of a difficult and uncertain home life growing up in Virginia. Those conditions filled her with dread about her path, but she was determined to support herself, never to depend on someone else to do it. It became a lesson she would share with her future protégés.

A stint as a cook in a college co-op house opened up the idea of cooking as a profession, but her mother admonished her that “ladies don’t cook,” insisting it was an unsavory occupation because it meant working late hours, and with men. However, her mother conceded that if Nathalie could find a woman making a living as a professional cook, she would give her blessing.

It wasn’t until she was studying at the London campus of Le Cordon Bleu in the late 1960s that she found the proof her mother wanted. When Julia Child visited the campus, the staff sought out Nathalie, as the only American in the course, to greet Child. “What should I do after graduation?” she asked. Child’s reply? “Start a cooking school and write a cookbook.” And thus her course was charted.

Rising Through the Culinary Ranks

Nathalie completed her culinary training in London, ran a restaurant in Majorca, Spain, and returned to the US to open her eponymous restaurant in 1971, where she served a combination of classic Southern food and French technique, which was considered ahead of its time. Nathalie’s was destination dining for Atlantans. Located 45 minutes outside the city, diners included the Atlanta business and political crowd.

Soon, she garnered the attention of a decision-maker at Rich’s department store who asked her to help start the first participation cooking school in the South. She did not take the first offer and negotiated not only a higher management-level salary but also a title that would open doors for her: Cooking School Director. It was from behind those stoves, teaching thousands of students—mostly women—that Nathalie committed herself to mentoring those who aspired to cook professionally.

It was through those experiences she had learned firsthand the power that women lacked in the culinary world. It irked her that women were rarely in positions of authority, struggling to gain entry and acceptance, and when employed, were often paid less.

A Lifetime of Achievement and Leadership

Among her many talents, being a connector was Nathalie’s greatest strength. She would gladly tell you exactly who to call for assistance with a project or idea and badger you until you followed through. Both Julia Child and Jacques Pépin made guest appearances at the cooking school in the ’70s, and when Nathalie was casting about for a solution to bringing like-minded culinarians together to foster collaboration, she enlisted their help. The result was the creation of the International Association of Cooking Schools (IACP) in 1978, a model for the gathering and exchanging of ideas and information, and a source of support, now going strong in its 43rd year. In 2019, she received their Lifetime Achievement Award.

She was a founding board member of the Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA), an organization that documents, studies, and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the changing American South. In 2004, SFA presented her with its Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award.

As a longtime member of Les Dames d’Escoffier, the preeminent global professional organization for women leaders in the food, beverage, and hospitality industries, she was a founding member of the Atlanta and Charleston, South Carolina, chapters, and instrumental in starting more than 10 other chapters, including Nashville and North Carolina. Her distinguished career has been recognized with the prestigious Grand Dame award of Les Dames d’Escoffier (LDEI), as well as 2013 Woman of the Year by the Maître Cuisiniers de France. The James Beard Foundation recognized her with its Who’s Who in Food and Beverage in America award in 2015.

Recognizing the unique culinary contributions of Charleston, she became the founding board member of the Charleston Wine + Food Festival.

The strength and growth of LDEI is due in part to her diligence in founding the Atlanta and Charleston chapters, a founder of the American Institute of Wine and Food, and was a two-time president of IACP.

Teacher at Heart

At the heart of it all, though, Nathalie was a teacher. While she taught proper French technique, she was very much a casual cook, accessing what was on hand to create the next meal. Her gift was empowering the home cook to overcome their fears. She led by example, allowing her missteps to put her students at ease (“If it happens to me, it can happen to you”), giving them guidance on how to get out of a jam. We taught hundreds of cooks to make biscuits while on the road to promote our book Southern Biscuits, conducting demonstrations and classes to demystify the secrets to light, fluffy biscuits. The audiences were spellbound, learning the ins and outs of Southern flour and the technique of a light touch.

A Legacy of Generosity

Through her mentorship, advocacy, and insistence on women claiming their rightful place in the culinary world, Nathalie ensured her legacy was as rich and full as the recipes she taught. Her Pork Chop Theory, where one pork chop in the pan goes dry, but with two in the pan the fat from one will feed the other, is the guiding principle for her philosophy of life where colleagues lift each other up.

If it weren’t for Nathalie, the advances of women in the culinary field would be lagging. She not only opened doors—she held them open for others to walk through.

Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit

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