You're invited
University of South Carolina Libraries invite the public to dinner and conversation with guest speakers Nathalie Dupree and Dr. David S. Shields, two beloved Southern foods experts.
The evening will offer a delightful exploration of the cultural and social practices related to southern staples, cuisine and cultivars.
There will be an exhibit of selected items from Dupree's collection, which resides at University Libraries Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, at the event.
Highlights of the collection include Dupree’s personal diaries that record her participation in multiple culinary and literary scenes, menus and recipes, television programs, cookbooks, correspondence with notable chefs including Julia Child and Jacques Pépin, and materials related to her publishing and production company and her 2010 Senatorial write-in campaign.
The largest portion of the collection is the surviving master copies of her television shows dating from the 1980s to 2010, which University Libraries seeks to presere digitally and provide online access to through ticket sales, contributions and sponsorships derived from this event.
The dinner takes place Thursday, Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. at the University's Capstone Campus Room.
Seats are limited and will sell out soon, so make your reservations now for our annual dinner.
Nathalie Dupree
Nathalie, as she is known to her fans, launched the New Southern Cooking movement that has swept restaurants and catering businesses nationwide.
She has appeared on more than 300 cooking shows on PBS, the Food Network and the Learning Channel, and made multiple appearances on the Today Show and Good Morning America.
She has authored 14 cookbooks including New Southern Cooking and Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking, which are both on the 2017 Southern Living 100 best cookbooks of all time list.
Nathalie directed the Rich’s Cooking School in Atlanta for 10 years, and has been a chef at restaurants in Georgia, Virginia and Majorca, Spain.
Additionally, she cofounded the Charleston Wine and Food Festival, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Southern Foodways, and two chapters of Les Dames d’Escoffier. In 2018 she was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors, the first cookbook author to be included.
Dr. David S. Shields
Shields, a Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina College of Arts and Sciences, explores early American literary culture, American performing arts photography, and food studies through his work.
He edited the journal Early American Literature for a decade, collaborated in writing A History of the Book in America and the Cambridge History of American Literature, and compiled the now standard anthology of colonial verse, American Poetry: the Seventeenth and Eighteen Centuries for the Library of America.
In October 2017 the University of Chicago Press published his The Culinarians, the first ever collection of biographies of American chefs, caterers, and restaurateurs, which was the 2018 finalist for the James Beard book award in food scholarship.
He owns one of the premier collections of stage and cinema still photographs in private hands. His website Broadway Photographs is the standard reference for the visual culture of the American stage from the Civil War through the 20th Century.
Shields is currently the Chairman of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, whose mission is to preserve and restore the agriculture and cultivars of the American South.