The family of Walter N. Lambert will receive friends at Rose Funeral Home – Mann Chapel on Saturday, August 5, 2023, from 10-11:30 a.m. with the funeral service to follow at 11:30. Interment will be at Highland Memorial Cemetery at 1 p.m.
I learned much about Chef Walter from his obituary, which is here.
He must have aced U.S. Air Force basic training because he was sent straight to Yale University to learn Mandarin Chinese. He then served as an interpreter and translator in Taiwan.
After military service, he returned to the University of Tennessee where he earned a doctorate in political science. For the next 30 years, he worked in the UT Political Science Department, then as a lobbyist, spending most of his time in Nashville and Washington. He met a few presidents along the way. He also had a key role in bringing the 1982 World’s Fair to Knoxville.
Obviously, Walter Lambert was more than a country cook on TV.
That said, he was an excellent country cook.