A Tribute to Nathalie Dupree

James Beard Award-winning chef, creator, and tv character Nathalie Dupree died on Monday in Raleigh, North Carolina, at 85. Dupree was an icon in Southern cooking, championing feminine cooks all through the area, together with Virginia Willis, who pens this heartfelt tribute letter to her.

Pricey Nathalie,

It’s been simply over three a long time since I offered you with soggy meringues as an unpaid apprentice. Daunted by failure, I listened to you patiently clarify, “Nicely, candy pea, it’s not your fault. You may’t make meringue when it’s raining.” I’d by no means examined a recipe in my life, and I keep in mind my excessive disappointment while you returned my testing sheets peppered with questions and recipes dripping with the blood-red ink of your editor’s pen.

Virginia Willis

Now, what I wouldn’t do to scrub up one in all your flour explosions off a freshly mopped kitchen ground or tidy up one more empty can of your caffeine-free weight loss plan Coke.

You took me out of my mom’s kitchen and uncovered me to issues I had hardly heard, a lot much less cooked. I arrived on the studio as a 25-year-old lady who knew learn how to make biscuits however not brioche. Even from a household of avid cooks, the pie crusts I knew have been the sort that began in an aluminum tin, not a measuring cup. My folks cooked in forged iron, not Le Creuset. I used to be a scared, hardworking, novice thirsting for data, and also you fed me.

You appeared bigger than life, a bona fide movie star chef within the days when public tv was the one culinary programming accessible, lengthy earlier than Meals Community. I’d watched you make easy pork chops to cheese souffle, clothed in your floral aprons along with your hair completely coiffed, carrying your signature pearls. I used to be equally terrified and in awe, having no thought you’d finally develop into probably the most essential folks in my life.

Virginia Willis

You known as us your chickens. You took us all beneath your wing and shared your data and life classes freely. Like your now-famed Pork Chop Principle: “If there is just one pork chop within the pan, it goes dry; if there are two or extra, the fats from one feeds the opposite.” We understood it was a metaphor for managing jealousy, learn how to work with others, and growing mutually useful partnerships. Furthermore, after an extended day in your kitchen, you despatched me to volunteer at chef occasions, not just for the expertise but additionally for networking. “All the time elevate your hand,” you stated. “Volunteer for every little thing you possibly can, get your self on the market.”

You despatched me off to culinary college L’Academie de Delicacies in D.C., insisting the smaller college would go well with me higher. I keep in mind calling you enthusiastic about my check scores and consulting on recipe concepts for my remaining sensible examination. (I additionally keep in mind you calling me to ask learn how to work the microwave.) After I returned to develop into your check kitchen director, our heads began to bump extra typically. I keep in mind when the famed French chef Roger Vergé of 3-star Michelin restaurant Moulin de Mougins visited your house. I proposed a whimsical French meal. You, as an alternative, needed to share the meals of the South — fried catfish and cheese grits, I keep in mind. I didn’t get it then, considering you doubted my potential, however I get it now.

You guided my skilled life, together with learn how to be a lady in a person’s world. “It’s essential to go to France,” you stated, and shipped me off to Ecole de Delicacies LaVarenne to apprentice with the authority on French cooking and founding father of the varsity, Anne Willan. After I returned stateside, I managed the TV kitchens of Bobby Flay in New York and Martha Stewart Dwelling Tv due to my expertise with you. Confronted with the belief my male sous chef was getting paid greater than me, you taught me learn how to deal with it. I walked into the manager producer’s workplace and walked out with a $10,000 elevate.

We stored up 12 months after 12 months, and we grew to become buddies. Our tour throughout Texas educating cooking courses collectively for Central Market and consuming tacos and barbecue at roadside stands was a hoot — an expertise I name, “driving Ms. Dupree.” But for over half my life, you might have by no means stopped guiding me, even once I noticed you for the final time only some months in the past.

Clay Williams

I do know you love-hate Pat Conroy’s quote that states you have been “extra like a fictional character than a flesh and blood particular person.” It nonetheless makes me howl with laughter. However it’s not since you puttered about uttering epithets like, “Do as I say, not as I do” or “Oops, I dropped my diamond,” while you broke a bowl. It’s as a result of it’s unattainable to think about that anybody might really be as beneficiant and loving as a real-life particular person.

Oh, my candy buddy, you’ll all the time stay in my coronary heart as my buddy and mentor. I’ll all the time try to be the prepare dinner you knew I may very well be. I’ll endeavor to be the chief you have been. I’ll do as you’d anticipate me to do. Of all my accolades, honors, and awards, my biggest honor in all of my profession is that I used to be one in all your flock, one in all your chickens.

A lot love all the time and endlessly,
Virginia

Virginia Willis is a chef and James Beard Award-winning cookbook creator, content material creator, culinary producer, and motivational speaker. The late Nathalie Dupree was her mentor for over three a long time.