SFA mourns the passing of Nathalie Dupree, an SFA founder, Lifetime Achievement Award winner, cookbook author, chef, television host, and champion of Southern cooking.

At the age of 19, Dupree told her mother she wanted to be a restaurant cook. “Don’t do that to me,” her mother replied, adding that ladies don’t serve the public. Dupree moved to London, where she took classes at the Cordon Bleu, and then ran a kitchen in Majorca.

With her then husband, she opened Nathalie’s Restaurant in Social Circle, Georgia. That led to teaching classes and compiling recipe booklets for Rich’s Cooking School in Atlanta where, beginning in 1972, she taught over 10,000 students. She wrote columns for the local newspaper and appeared on local television. A public television cooking show followed—an ahead-of-its-time program featuring her documentary travels throughout the nation in search of rare and unheralded food finds.

All the while Dupree published cookbooks, nearly twenty in total, including the bestsellers New Southern Cooking (1986) and Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking (2012). Her work and leadership inspired the careers of countless writers and cooks. SFA’s growth in its first five years can be attributed in no small part to Nathalie’s energy, enterprise, and connections throughout the South and beyond. In 2014, SFA named our graduate fellow program in Nathalie’s honor ensuring that generations of students studying Southern foodways would know her name and her vast contributions to Southern food.

A trusted friend and mentor to many, Dupree will be remembered as one of the most prominent food writers and culinary personalities in America.

Read SFA’s 2018 oral history interview with Dupree at this link.