Dolly Parton Talks About Her New Cookbook

When Dolly Parton walks into the kitchen of her youngest sister, Rachel Parton George, she’ll usually sing out: “Hey good lookin’, what ya obtained cookin’?” The road from a 1951 Hank Williams track has change into one thing of a Parton household joke — and it additionally impressed the title of the sisters’ newest collaboration, “Good Lookin’ Cookin,'” a recipe e-book launched this month.

The e-book options 80 dishes and drinks organized into month-to-month menus. Readers will discover Southern classics — fried trout, corn fritters, and purple-and-white-cabbage coleslaw — interspersed with tales from the sisters’ childhoods in Tennessee and of their years touring and performing collectively. Journey + Leisure spoke to them about meals, household, and discovering the proper recipes.

T+L: Are you able to share a meals reminiscence from rising up?

Dolly Parton: A lot of our life was centered across the church, and Mama cooked a giant Sunday dinner after. We’d have fried rooster, mashed potatoes, biscuits, banana pudding — all that stuff. 

Rachel Parton George: I can nonetheless keep in mind how sizzling and flaky the biscuits had been within the morning, together with the odor of bacon and low. These recollections nonetheless fill me with such a way of house.

What impressed you to create this e-book?

DP: I had written a few books already about my songwriting. Rachel is actually the good prepare dinner in our household, and she will make meals look good and style good — that’s the place the title got here from. She had needed to write down one and stated, “Wouldn’t it’s nice if we did full menus, out of your drinks and appetizers all through?” 

RPG: Dolly and I make an incredible mixture. I like to write down the recipes and sensible info, and Dolly likes to inform tales — and she or he does that so nicely.

Associated: Dollywood’s Iconic Cinnamon Bread Recipe

Is there a recipe you may’t appear to get proper?

RPG: Mama’s cathead biscuits! (They’re referred to as that as a result of they’re so massive.) She would incorporate the lard, milk, and flour in such a method, and it was so wonderful to observe her work the dough. I’ve tried to duplicate that one million instances, however they’re nonetheless completely different from Mama’s. 

DP: I believe that lacking ingredient you may by no means fairly get is love. The factor we lengthy for is that particular person, and the love they put in that dish.

What’s a spot that’s at all times stayed with you?

RPG: One in every of my favourite locations I’ve ever visited was Lake Tahoe. We skied actually badly, however had numerous enjoyable performing there within the late 70s.

DP: We’ve traveled all around the world, however I at all times look ahead to visiting my kinfolk in East Tennessee.

What’s your go-to room service order?

RPG: A membership sandwich.

DP: Oh, simply the truth that they’ve room service! 

“Good Lookin’ Cookin’: A 12 months of Meals” is offered on Sept. 17 from Ten Velocity Press.

A model of this story first appeared within the October 2024 difficulty of Journey + Leisure beneath the headline “Collectively, All the time.”