Dolly Parton Will Only Eat Clams One Specific Way

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Food is a big part of life for country music icon Dolly Parton. The singer, songwriter, actress, and entrepreneur, who turned 80 in 2026, is an avid cook, restaurateur, and even has her own retail food line that includes baking mixes, desserts, and single-serve frozen meals like her well-reviewed pot roast.

While she loves home cooking — her favorite food of all time is potatoes in any form — Parton knows how to appreciate a good meal on the town, too. When dining out, her favorite appetizer is clams casino, that New England classic featuring clams on the half shell stuffed with bacon, breadcrumbs, butter, and, often, other ingredients like peppers, garlic, shallots, cheese, and herbs. But when it comes to the star ingredient in the dish, the clams, she is very particular about how they're prepared.

Per a 1992 interview with The New York Times, the star revealed that while she enjoys eating clams, she doesn't like large, overly chewy chunks of the mollusks. So, she requests them to be chopped into small pieces whenever she orders them. This retains the characteristic chewy texture while making the bits easier to eat. Clams casino à la Dolly, therefore, is re-christened "chopped clams casino" when Parton is the one feasting on the dish.

Among her food-related achievements, Parton has authored cookbooks filled with comforting Southern staples. While her collections don't seem to feature any clam dishes, there is some seafood and fish-centric fare, like steak and lobster with drawn butter; shrimp with cream cheese, capers, and cocktail sauce; and fried catfish. The star's lineup of frozen, heat-and-eat dinners doesn't yet include any clam-centric meals, either, but Dolly does offer a shrimp and grits entree (available online) among them.

In Dolly Parton's childhood home in the Great Smoky Mountains, the only fish on the household menu was what could be caught nearby. Things like frog legs and catfish, almost always fried, were familiar cuisine for young Parton. 

Raised on Southern comfort food, Parton subscribes to the belief that everything's better with butter, and fried foods in general are a favorite. The star also likes oysters (as long as they're fried), fried okra, and, like the true Southerner she is, country fried chicken.

She never encountered shellfish dishes like clams or shrimp cocktail until she was an adult. Once a love for this seafood cuisine took hold, though, it was steadfast. Parton even once wrote a song about fried clams. While the lyrics of "Two Doors Down" tell the story of a woman getting over a breakup, she told Kelly Clarkson that the inspiration for the song was actually Dolly missing out on eating fried clams with her bandmates because she was dieting (via YouTube). 

Another deep-fried favorite, which she gets whenever visiting her famous Dollywood theme park, is funnel cakes. Dollywood's versions come loaded with powdered sugar, with the option of toppings like strawberry or apple pie filling, crushed Oreo cookies, and ice cream. While we don't know the music mogul's preference, ice cream is a likely pairing. She enjoys the Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams brand (Strawberry Buttermilk is her favorite), and she once collaborated with Jeni's to offer her own Dolly-inspired flavor. She also grew up enjoying Appalachian snow cream and still makes the treat as an adult.