Dolly Parton and Rachel Parton George Talk Cast Iron, Chicken and Dumplings, and Pride

Tinfoil Swans Podcast

On this episode

Dolly Parton is an American icon for all the right reasons. She’s always been unabashedly herself, employing that authenticity, work ethic, humor, talent, and grace to make enduring art — and use her hard-earned platform and cash to support causes dear to her heart. She and her sister, Rachel Parton George, recently co-authored the cookbook Good Lookin’ Cookin’ and the two joined us on Tinfoil Swans for a rollicking chat about being proud of where you’re from, eating bear and squirrel meat, feeling insecure in restaurants, taking care of cast-iron, and the joy of chosen family.

Meet our guests

Tennessee-born Dolly Parton is a legendary singer, songwriter, actress, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author. She has been nominated for 50 Grammy Awards and has won 11 times, sold more than 100 million records worldwide, been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and has had songs on the country music charts in seven consecutive decades. Since the 1980s, Parton’s nonprofit Dollywood Foundation has donated millions of dollars to support childhood literacy programs, recovery for victims of the Gatlinburg fires, and most recently, relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Rachel Parton George is the youngest of the 12 Parton siblings. She had a starring role in the TV sitcom 9 to 5, performed onstage internationally alongside her family members, and forged a songwriting career of her own. She has long been an avid collector of recipes and cookbooks, and as co-author of Good Lookin’ Cookin’, she makes her debut on the shelves.

Meet our host

Kat Kinsman is the executive features editor at Food & Wine, author of Hi, Anxiety: Life With a Bad Case of Nerves, host of Food & Wine’s podcast, and founder of Chefs With Issues. Previously, she was the senior food & drinks editor at Extra Crispy, editor-in-chief and editor at large at Tasting Table, and the founding editor of CNN Eatocracy. She won a 2024 IACP Award for Narrative Food Writing With Recipes and a 2020 IACP Award for Personal Essay/Memoir, and has had work included in the 2020 and 2016 editions of The Best American Food Writing. She was nominated for a James Beard Broadcast Award in 2013, won a 2011 EPPY Award for Best Food Website with 1 million unique monthly visitors, and was a finalist in 2012 and 2013. She is a sought-after international keynote speaker and moderator on food culture and mental health in the hospitality industry, and is the former vice chair of the James Beard Journalism Committee.

Highlights from the episode

On pride and ingenuity

“I’ve always been proud of who I am, where I’m from, and what I ate. To me, it’s fun to tell people, ‘My dad and my brothers used to go out into the woods, and they’d bring home rabbit, and squirrels, and all sorts a things. And we knew how to cook it. We knew how to prepare it.’ But we did eat things that people think, ‘Oh my God. You ate that?’ When you live in the country, you make do with what you got. And you’re also a good cook, so you can make almost anything taste good. Some things we did not eat, like opossum. But I guess if we’d have got hungry enough, you could do that.” — Dolly Parton

On getting comfortable at restaurants — or not

“I remember feeling awkward for a long time, being from the country, when I first came to Nashville and having to go have meetings in restaurants. Cause we didn’t go to restaurants and when we did, it was just a hole in the wall little country thing, where they’d serve the same kind of food we grew up eating. But I was always so nervous, cause I didn’t know how to use the right fork, or the right spoon, or the right glass. Even to this day I’m not sure I know how to do all that. So I just remember being uneasy, trying to watch other people, see what they were doing so I wouldn’t make any big mistakes. For country people, when you’re not used to that, it’s very uneasy. I still have a tendency when I’m at big banquets and stuff, to be sure I’m watching to make sure I’ve got the right thing at the right time — the right fork, and all that.” — Dolly Parton

On getting a little corny

“Let me tell you a fun one about me and Rachel when we were talking about going into restaurants to eat. First time we ordered off the menu corned beef and cabbage. And when they brought it we said, ‘Well, where’s my corn?’ So when the waiter approached, he said, ‘Well, um, you didn’t order corn.’ I said, ‘Well, it said corn beef. Could you bring us some corn?’ Anyway, we’re getting goofy, now.” — Dolly Parton

On people who keep secret recipes

“I want everyone to be so happy and successful when they make any of these recipes. I want it to be fantastic, and I know people like that.” — Rachel Parton George

“Well, I do hold back on a couple of things myself, cause that [chicken and dumplings] recipe’s not even in the book. I have a few little things that I make, that everybody wants me to give them the recipe. I say, ‘I am not doing it.’ They said, ‘Well, you have to do it before you die.’ I said, ‘No. You’re just going to have to miss me and say, God, I wish she was still here.’ You just have to remember me if you don’t know exactly what it was. But I didn’t even try to put those recipes in. I didn’t hold back on that. Rachel wouldn’t let me do that. She’s too serious about all this.” — Dolly Parton

On stained pages

“You just can’t trash my book.” — Rachel Parton George

“Rachel is a little neater than I am. I mean, even books that I’m reading that ain’t got nothing to do with cooking, I’m always eating when I’m reading. And even a good book that I’m reading has got — I got tomato sauce here, pizza sauce there, a thumbprint of grease on it. So yeah, I’m a little messier than Rachel. But you don’t mess with her cookbooks. She collects those.” — Dolly Parton

On cleaning cast iron

“A cast iron skillet for me is so special. No one really touches, washes, or cooks with it in my house. It’s mine. And then, when the food is finished and dinner is over, I take the iron skillet, and I just gently wash the skillet and then I dry it, and I put it away. Don’t leave it out. Don’t put a lot of soap, or detergents, or scrubbing. That’s how I take care of it.” — Rachel Parton George

“Don’t you scrub no lard on it?” — Dolly Parton

“Oh. Well, I do before I cook.” — Rachel Parton George

“I remember back when we were growing up, mama always cleaned her skillet. She’d take a rag, like with the lard, and smooth it out and hang it on the wall. We really take that serious about the iron skillet growing up — you just learn that. And I had a friend stay over and put my iron skillet in the dishwasher. And then you just got that little — that brownie, rusty thing. I never invited them back to my house. You washed my skillet.” — Dolly Parton

On the diplomacy of dumplings

“This day and time, families are falling apart with politics, or this, or that, or the other. And it’s always so wonderful if you can find that warmth and that love, and keep things together. And what can bring families or friends together more than good food? You can put your differences aside if your dumplings are good enough.”

About the podcast

Food & Wine has led the conversation around food, drinks, and hospitality in America and around the world since 1978. Tinfoil Swans continues that legacy with a new series of intimate, informative, surprising, and uplifting interviews with the biggest names in the culinary industry, sharing never-before-heard stories about the successes, struggles, and fork-in-the-road moments that made these personalities who they are today.

This season, you’ll hear from icons and innovators like Daniel Boulud, Rodney Scott, Asma Khan, Emeril and E.J. Lagasse, Claudia Fleming, Dave Beran and Will Poulter, Dan Giusti, Priya Krishna, Lee Anne Wong, Cody Rigsby, Kevin Gillespie, Pete Wells, David Chang, Raphael Brion, Christine D’Ercole, Channing Frye, Nick Cho, Ti Martin, Kylie Kwong, Pati Jinich, Yotam Ottolenghi, Dolly Parton and Rachel Parton George, Darron Cardosa, Bobby Flay, and other special guests going deep with host Kat Kinsman on their formative experiences; the dishes and meals that made them; their joys, doubts and dreams; and what’s on the menu in the future. Tune in for a feast that’ll feed your brain and soul — and plenty of wisdom and quotable morsels to savor.

New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen and follow on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

These interview excerpts have been edited for clarity.

Editor’s Note: The transcript for download does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.