Southern Cooking Icon Nathalie Dupree Dies at 85

James Beard Award-winning chef, author, and television personality Nathalie Dupree died on Monday in Raleigh, North Carolina, at 85.

Dupree was an icon in Southern cooking, championing female chefs throughout the region. She is known for her nationally lauded cookbook, New Southern Cooking, which turned into a cooking series on PBS, The Learning Channel, Star TV, and the Food Network. She went on to write 15 cookbooks, including Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking and Southern Biscuits. Three of the cookbooks won James Beard Awards.

Dupree also founded several U.S. chapters of Les Dames d’Escoffier, the international group dedicated to empowering culinary professions for women, including Atlanta’s. In 2011, she was titled the Grande Dame for her life achievements, the highest honor given by the association.

Dupree was born in Hamilton, New Jersey, in 1939. She earned her cooking certification from Le Cordon Bleu in London, first working in a kitchen in Spain and then opening her namesake restaurant, Nathalie’s, in the back of an antique store in Covington, Georgia — one frequented by Atlantans. She was known for applying French cooking techniques to Southern ingredients and comfort foods — something she later went on to teach at Rich’s Cooking School in Atlanta for 10 years.

Members of the industry have been paying tribute to the chef and author on social media. Author, chef, and member of Les Dames d’Escoffier Atlanta, Virginia Willis recalls meeting Dupree at 25, saying the chef mentored her throughout her career. “Rest in biscuit power,” writes Willis in an Instagram post. “… she freaking changed my freaking life, my existence, my place in this world.”

Chef and author Suvir Saran says Dupree affectionately called him her “Indian prince.” Saran is also a farmer and owner of American Masala Farm — a project he says Dupree helped bring to life.

“She inspired me in so many ways, including planting the idea of a farm that Charlie and I would later build in Hebron, New York. Her way of living, her storytelling, and her deep love for food and people shaped my life,” writes Saran in a tribute on X. “Her generosity extended to her cooking, where she shared lessons like her ‘pork chop theory’—one chop in a pan dries out, but two or more cook in their collective fat, staying juicy and tender … Nathalie’s food wasn’t just food; it was heart and soul on a plate.”

A memorial service will be held for Dupree on February 22 in Monroe, Georgia, and a brief memorial service is scheduled in Raleigh this Saturday. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Atlanta Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier Scholarship Fund.