The last time I saw Dottie was at a weekend book event for her readers, held in Charleston. Those weekends are grueling with events, signings, and late nights. Close to the last minute she asked if I could show up and make biscuits at the event hotel because she was exhausted. Already there when I showed up with my biscuit gear was Carrie Morey, who had cooked enough biscuits for the entire crowd at her restaurant, Hot Little Biscuit. Carrie and I are Pork Chop friends, as Dottie knew.
Pork Chop friends are friends who subscribe to the Pork Chop Theory, created by Shirley Corriher and me. She had been my student at Rich’s Cooking School, but as so often happens, she was more gifted than I. We were members of the same culinary associations and competing for business opportunities. We had a choice. Our lives had been full of jobs where there was just one spot for a woman, and to get it you had to, as one woman cook said, “push everyone else out of the boat.” It didn’t suit us, so we decided we wouldn’t do it that way. Somehow we developed the theory that if there is one pork chop in a pan it will go dry, but if there are two or more pork chops in a pan the fat from one will feed the other. We determined to make room for others in the pan and very shortly after were elected to be on the same board of directors of an international association.
Now there are many other Pork Chops in the culinary world. Carrie Morey is one. We’ve shared the stage, employees, steered each other to book contracts and helped each other whenever a leg up—or some fat in the pan—was needed. We each think our biscuits are better than the other’s but eat each other’s enthusiastically. A biscuit from one of us is a damn good biscuit. Now that I think about it, tired as she was when she arrived, Dottie was being a Pork Chop again that day, making a spotlight for me and Carrie, and telling everyone to buy our books.
Dottie and I were always going to meet in New York and eat escargot and frogs legs together, enough garlic to distance ourselves from everyone around us. Her favorite story of mine was my snail and mountain oyster story, which Pat Conroy partially borrowed for his cookbook. No matter, I tell it better, but it’s not the only time snails played a role in my life.
About Nathalie Dupree
Nathalie Dupree by Rick McGee
NATHALIE DUPREE is the author of fourteen cookbooks. She is best known for her approachability and her understanding of Southern cooking, having started the New Southern Cooking movement now found in many restaurants throughout the United States, and co-authoring Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking.
Nathalie, as she is known to her fans, has won wide recognition for her work, including four James Beard Awards and numerous others. She was also founding chairman of the Charleston Wine and Food Festival and a founding member of many culinary organizations, including the prestigious Southern Foodways and the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
She is married to author Jack Bass and lives in Charleston, South Carolina. She travels extensively.
Also by Nathalie Dupree
Mastering the Art of Southern Vegetables
Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking
Nathalie Dupree’s Southern Biscuits
Nathalie Dupree’s Shrimp and Grits Cookbook
Nathalie Dupree’s Comfortable Entertaining
Nathalie Dupree Cooks Quick Meals for Busy Days
Nathalie Dupree Cooks Everyday Meals from a Well-Stocked Pantry
Nathalie Dupree Cooks Great Meals for Busy Days
Nathalie Dupree’s Southern Memories
Nathalie Dupree Cooks for Family and Friends
Nathalie Dupree’s Matters of Taste
Nathalie Dupree’s Favorite Recipes and Stories
New Southern Cooking
Essays by Dorothea Benton Frank
Back in 2018, Dottie, as I always called her, wrote three essays for her readers because carpal tunnel syndrome prevented her from signing tip-in sheets. (Tipins are what we call the pieces of paper with an author’s actual signature that we bind into a book.)
Dottie actually wanted to buy a few tubes of bright red lipstick and kiss the pages, but I thought some essays would be less likely to smear.
Carrie Feron
Editor
Dorothea Benton Frank’s Letter to Her Readers I
Dear Family,
I wanted to add something to the back of this book to pose a question to y’all. Is the world becoming meaner, crazier, and more unkind, or is it my imagination?
So last week I was watching the news on mute and trying to figure out how to use my new Instant Pot, when I thought I saw a peacock at an airport on the screen. I restored the sound and there was the story. A woman at Newark Airport was trying to board a United Airlines flight with a huge live peacock. She claimed it was her emotional support animal. I’m not kidding. Emotional. Support. Animal. It wasn’t like you could put that bird in the overhead or in a little crate under the seat. This bird had a five-foot-long train. What if the little darling opened its feathers into a fan and decided to hop around, perhaps making a deposit here and there? The whole world would need emotional support animals. That’s what.
Let’s talk about social media. What about people posting their vacation pictures while they’re still on vacation? Then they’re surprised and upset to come home and find out their houses have been robbed. Seriously? Never mind naughty selfies going viral. Whose fault is that? Please! And please, before you take another selfie, check the background. Not that social media is all bad, because it isn’t. In addition to hearing from readers I also get to visit with my family and old friends who live
