Dolly Parton recently sat down with Insider to dish on everything from her favorite mac and cheese recipe to the best way to make scrambled eggs.
And the country-music icon also shared what it's like to cook for the stars, including her goddaughter Miley Cyrus.
"Miley and I both love Southern food, like mashed potatoes, coleslaw, and a big ol' hunk of cornbread — making cornbread muffins or a big pan of it with the squares," Parton said.
Parton said she especially loved making meatloaf for her goddaughter and that Cyrus made a great one, too.
"Miley's trying to watch what she eats now — she's gone through a lot of phases of being vegetarian or being vegan or whatever," Parton added. "But in the earlier days, or when her defenses are down, we still eat that good ol' food like meatloaf."
While Parton and Cyrus both love cooking up a Southern feast, it's been a while since they've shared some homemade meatloaf together.
"I haven't cooked for Miley in a long time because she's a little more picky now than I am," Parton said with a laugh. "I can't eat it as often, but I've still 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."
Parton also loves whipping up dishes for anyone she's working with. She shared what it was like to cook for Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda while they were filming "9 to 5."
"We would be at different houses at different times rehearsing, and every time they'd come to my house, I would make Southern food," she said. "And Lily, of course, is from the South, so she loved the food."
Parton added: "That's when Jane was doing her workout videos and all that, and Lily and I ate more of my food than she did. But she said, 'Oh, that looks so good. That looks so good! I'll just taste a little bit. I'll taste a little bit.'"
Parton has continued her tradition of cooking for the cast and crew of her movies and said that she'd never been intimidated to make something for a huge celebrity.
"I'll make a big, whole vat of chicken and dumplings, which I'm pretty famous for," she said. "They're real Southern, and the way mama used to make them."
When she's not cooking for A-listers, Parton loves making a classic Southern breakfast for her husband, Carl Dean, whom she's been married to for 55 years.
And if they're taking a break from the kitchen, Parton said she and her husband loved going to Taco Bell and other fast-food restaurants for a casual dinner.
"Oh, I love to get a good burger out on the highway and french fries like everybody else," she said. "And we go get hot doughnuts now and then. We love to just get out in that little camper of ours and drive through restaurants."
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