Southern food icon and culinary queen Nathalie Dupree, 85, passes away in Raleigh
Nathalie Dupree, a queen in Southern cooking, an author of numerous acclaimed cookbooks and a culinary instructor to generations of cooks and chefs, died Monday in Raleigh at age 85.
Among the country’s most celebrated cookbook authors, Dupree’s culinary gaze was fixed on the South, depicting its dishes and traditions with elegance and an abundance of flavor. Her death was announced by her family Monday in an obituary.
Though much of her career was spent in Georgia and South Carolina, Raleigh has counted the icon among its own since 2020. She moved with her husband, the writer Jack Bass, an author and former Charlotte Observer bureau chief, to be closer to Bass’ children in the Triangle.
Dupree’s legacy includes 15 cookbooks, numerous awards and lifetime achievement honors from the likes of the Southern Foodways Alliance and Les Dames d’Escoffier, a global group of women cooking professionals, which named her a Grande Dame in 2011. She also hosted the television show “New Southern Cooking with Nathalie Dupree” on PBS.
Perhaps the most lasting and fitting honor was bestowed on Dupree by Southern Living magazine, who named her the Queen of Southern Cuisine.
But beyond what she created and produced herself, Dupree’s legacy in Southern food lives on forever in the connections and guidance she instilled in the region’s chefs, home cooks and authors.
Dupree’s impact on a Triangle chef
For the Triangle, a generous introduction made by Dupree to a young Walter Royal put the late chef of the Angus Barn on a lifelong career in the kitchen. While Royal was a student at Dupree’s cooking school in Atlanta, she detected a talent and drive in him and sent him to Fearrington Village to work with its chef Edna Lewis, then and now one of the most famous Southern cooks.
“I knew he would do something with it,” Dupree said in a 2019 interview with The News & Observer.
Dupree believed that ambition began with addition. She’s famous for her “pork chop theory” — as much a cooking tip as it is a philosophy — believing that greater things were possible working together.
“Her pork chop theory guided her work with others throughout the culinary world; one pork chop in a pan goes dry, but two in a pan have the fat to feed each other,” her obituary said. “It helped turn around what was once thought to be competition for limited resources for women to foster community and lift each other, creating even more opportunities.”
Local food writer and cookbook author Nancie McDermott first met Dupree at a book signing in Charleston in the early 2000s, ending the day by joining a new chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, despite living hundreds of miles away. Dupree, McDermott said, was always easy to give away her spark and help make connections for others in the business.
“She gave away the magic,” McDermott said. “This world can be exclusionary and exclusive, people wanting to keep things for themselves. She was a huge champion for women in food....She had so much energy and light.”
Dupree emphasized the hospitality of Southern culinary traditions, McDermott said, showing small ways that meals can be occasions.
“It’s about welcoming people to your table,” McDermott said. “The tablecloth, the cake stand, these aren’t things you’re doing to show off, you’re making it an occasion, you’re showing people you’re glad to see them.”
The generosity of Dupree’s spotlight led many to feel like they had a place in the food world. Friends, admirers and proteges poured out tributes on social media.
“My heart is shattered and broken yet the cracks let the joy spill out that she was such a major part of my life,” wrote Atlanta cookbook author Virginia Willis on Instagram. “I met her a scared girl at 25 and she freaking changed my life, my existence, my place in this world.”
“Nathalie was more than an author and television personality,” award-winning author Michael Twitty wrote in an Instagram post. “She advanced the representation and voice of Southern women in the food world and made space and amplified Black folks and other people of color in telling the story of Southern food.”
A memorial service for Dupree will be held in Raleigh, Jan. 18 at the Cardinal at North Hills, 4030 Cardinal at North Hills St. at 2 p.m.
This story was originally published January 14, 2025 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Southern food icon and culinary queen Nathalie Dupree, 85, passes away in Raleigh."
