Like millions of other people heartbroken over losing Dolly Parton, I found myself scrolling through clips and interviews about her life. I knew about her food ventures, but I didn’t realize just how much Dolly loved food—or how much of a business she had built around it.

Before her death, Forbes estimated Parton’s net worth at about $450 million , much of it from her stake in Dollywood. Food was only one piece of that empire, but it was a particularly personal one. Her love of the Southern food she grew up with eventually put her name on cookbooks, Duncan Hines baking mixes, frozen meals and wine.

There’s a reason Dolly Parton’s food ventures feel less like celebrity branding and more like an invitation to her kitchen table. Parton, who died on often talked about growing up around three things: “God, music and food.” Cooking and songwriting were intertwined for her, too—she said some of her best songs came to her while she was cooking.

So I took a deeper dive into Dolly Parton’s food businesses, cookbooks and wine, and how her love of Southern food became another part of the business empire she built over a lifetime.

From Dolly’s Kitchen To The Cookbook Shelf

Parton’s Good Lookin’ Cookin’: A Year of Meals , co-written with her sister Rachel Parton George, reads like a family reunion in book form with twelve holiday menus, more than 80 recipes, and stories about what a "Dolly Dollop" of butter or whipped cream really means.

The title comes from the phrase Dolly sings to Rachel every time she walks into the kitchen: "Hey, good lookin’ - what ya got cookin’?" It’s full of Southern staples like country ham and biscuits, meatloaf, and strawberry shortcake, proof that Dolly considers cooking a form of hospitality, not a chore.

Although not a cookbook, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones is a gorgeous photo book about her career. I proudly display it on my coffee table.

Dolly Takes On The Baking Aisle

In 2022, Dolly partnered with Duncan Hines on a full baking lineup, like cake mixes, frostings, brownies, biscuits, pancakes, and muffins, all built around Southern classics. It’s the kind of easy, nostalgic baking she grew up with, minus the guesswork, so anyone can make dessert taste as it came from a Tennessee kitchen.

Cornbread, Coconut Cake And A Little Dolly Magic

Among the Dolly Parton x Duncan Hines lineup, the Sweet Cornbread & Muffin Mix has been a hit with reviewers, earning a 4.7-star average, with shoppers praising its moist, buttery texture and calling it “a delight” to bake with.

It also comes with Dolly’s own Jalapeño Cornbread recipe printed on the box for anyone who wants to take it in a savory direction—which tracks, since cornbread was reportedly one of Dolly's own go-to weekend indulgences. The coconut cake mix is a close runner-up, with fans raving that the coconut flavor is "beyond wonderful," but the cornbread mix is the one to grab first.

Where to Buy Dolly Parton Baking Mixes

They’re sold at major grocery retailers, from Walmart to Smith’s. Hurry, as these are probably nearly sold out by now.

Dolly Heads To The Freezer Aisle

In 2025, Dolly rolled out single-serve frozen entrées with Conagra, like Beef Pot Roast, Chicken & Dumplings, Country Fried Steak, and Shrimp & Grits, plus a family-sized peach cobbler. Each is priced under $5. She’s said she wanted "good, hearty foods that are real tasty" in the freezer aisle, and she’s been candid that these aren’t diet food: "for people that really crave good, hearty meals - good food is what this is." True to her road-life habits of cooking ahead and freezing meals for the tour bus, the line is basically Dolly’s decades-old survival strategy for feeding a hungry, hardworking life turned into a product. Dolly also rolled out a line of frozen custards with Conagra, like Chocolate Mud Pie and Banana Cream.

Chicken & Dumplings Take Center Stage

Everyone’s favorite Dolly Parton frozen meal to try? Chicken & Dumplings. Across multiple independent taste tests— People , Southern Living and Simply Recipes all put the full lineup through the microwave—the verdict keeps landing in the same place: Chicken & Dumplings is the standout. People editors called it their “overwhelming favorite” for its creamy sauce and pillowy texture, while Southern Living found the chicken and gravy generous and flavorful enough to make even microwaved dumplings taste tender and homemade.

Dolly Parton Shrimp & Grits earns an honorable mention from a couple of testers, but it was also the one dish reviewers agreed suffered most from the freezer-to-microwave format. Dolly Parton frozen meals are also available at most major grocery stores nationwide.

From Tennessee To The Wine Aisle

Even though she didn’t seem much of a drinker, Dolly Wines launched in 2024 with a California Chardonnay described as full of white peach, sweet cream, and toasty oak. Dolly was reportedly hands-on with the tasting and label design, which includes iridescent and pink butterflies—so perfectly Dolly.

She was matter-of-fact about how wine fits her holiday spread: it "goes with different things," which might be the most Dolly wine-pairing advice ever given. Dolly Wines also features a Prosecco and a Rose, but only available in the UK.

Where to Buy Dolly Wines in the U.S.

I spotted the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on sale at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame gift shop when I was in town celebrating my 50th birthday last December. The Dolly Wines Bar or Butterfly Bar, located inside the Assembly Food Hall in downtown Nashville, pours both the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Beyond that, Dolly Wines might be hard to find in retail stores, but they are sold online at HSN .

Dolly Parton’s Favorite Foods

For all the branded products, Dolly’s true culinary north star was simpler: potatoes. "I have to have something with potatoes," she’s told Today in 2025 . Baked, mashed, or fried, it didn’t matter, as long as it’s on the plate. She was also famous on movie sets for her enormous pot of chicken and dumplings, made "the way mama used to make them," and for hauling homemade peanut butter fudge around as a snack. Ask anyone who's worked with her, and they'll tell you: "Everybody asks, 'When are you going to do the dumplings?'"

And then there’s the potato salad. Dolly swears her mayo-based version never spoils at a summer church picnic. "You didn’t have to worry," she told Today in 2022 . "It wasn't gonna last that long! It wasn't gonna go bad… not if I was around!"

Dolly, In Her Own Words, On Food

Nobody talked about eating with more joy—or more self-aware humor—than Dolly. Here are some of her best lines on the subject:

"My weaknesses have always been food and men - in that order." — One of the many food-related quips widely attributed to Parton.

Delivered with her signature wink, and proof that Dolly never took herself too seriously about either one.

"I tried every diet in the book. I tried some that weren’t in the book. I tried eating the book. It tasted better than most of the diets." — from her 1994 autobiography, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business .

On the long, losing war between Dolly and dieting.

"If you’re not a hog, it would serve two, but I’m a hog, so." — Dolly Parton, People interview, 2025.

On the portion sizes of her own single-serve frozen meals - technically a serving for two, but not if Dolly’s the one eating.

"I’ve never been on a diet that I didn’t break by wanting to eat something like potato salad or meatloaf or some fried chicken - any of that good stuff that you love to cook in the South." — Dolly Parton, Insider , 2022

Proof that no diet has ever truly stood a chance against Dolly's Southern cooking.

Food, Family And A Whole Lot Of Dolly

There aren’t many people who could turn a box of cornbread mix into an act of hospitality, but Dolly Parton spent her whole life doing both quiet and very loud magic—taking something plain and ordinary and making it feel like home. She gave us decades of songs that told the truth about heartbreak and hope, and she gave us just as many meals that told the truth about where she came from: a one-room cabin in the Smoky Mountains, a big family, a mother who could stretch a little into a lot, and a table where nobody ever left hungry. Whether she was belting out "Jolene" or bragging about her potato salad surviving a church picnic, the same spirit runs through all of it - warmth, humor, and an open invitation for everybody to pull up a chair.

So here’s to the one-in-a-billion Dolly Parton: for the music, for the generosity, for the 300+ million free books for children, for the LGBTQ advocacy, for Dollywood, for the jokes, for the rhinestones, and for reminding us that a really good bowl of chicken and dumplings can be its own kind of love song. Thank you, Dolly - for feeding our souls in every way you knew how. We will always love you.

More Dolly Parton Tributes: