>> Southern Dish is brought to you by these sponsors: Atmos Energy.

Proud to support the flavors and the stories that make Mississippi a one of a kind culinary destination.

Mississippi Beverage Association >> This program proudly brought to you by Mississippi's own Foundation Gaming and Entertainment, owner and operator of Fitz Casino Hotel in Tunica and Waterview Casino Hotel in Vicksburg.

Foundation Gaming and Entertainment.

Mississippians proudly supporting Mississippi.

>> In this episode of Southern Dish, we'll travel with former restaurant owner Lydia Chassaniol to see how cultural heritage is passed down through the generations.

Separated by nearly 100 miles, these two restaurants are connected by their award -winning chefs and how the restaurants got their names.

Two kitchens two stories one Mississippi.

Southern Dish.

In the small town of Greenwood, Mississippi, chef Taylor Bowen-Ricketts is ushering in a food renaissance in the heartlands of the Delta.

Hello, Taylor.

Hey, Lydia.

So good to see you.

You too.

Thank you for letting us come and be with you at your restaurant today.

Glad you're here.

Thank you.

Okay.

Well, Let's go back and see what you've got going.

Let me show you around.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you very much.

I moved to Greenwood in '05.

I reopened Fan and Johnny's, naming it after my grandparents.

Their food was so great, and I always thought they should open a restaurant, but they were too smart to do that.

Taylor, thanks so much for letting us come here to Fan and Johnny's to visit with you.

Your menu is a little different from what you see at your ordinary, restaurants in, in here in Mississippi.

How did you come up with the, the, the sort of things that you prepare and serve to your customers?

Somebody described the food here once as a kaleidoscope of a menu, and I think that's a good way to see it, 'cause there are no recipes.

It's just menu titles.

Wow.

It's method then.

It's method.

I change a portion of the menu every day ... and sometimes twice a day.

Is that based on what's seasonal or is it just because of certain- That's based on my crazy- ... and not wanting to do anything normal.

Yeah.

I've heard it said that you have so many ingredients that it's like a grocery store in here.

It is.

It's stupid.

Our inventory is way too much, but it doesn't go bad.

We do use everything and, and it is like a grocery store back there.

I think that's part of it.

Using local ingredients and small farms and seasonal- Mm-hmm ... foods, you can't be committed to one menu, and you have to bend a little bit with the seasons.

We're going to do, a, a duck dish today.

Yes, duck ragu.

Tell us about that.

So one of our menu staples is duck confit, and so I've got a batch that just came out of the oven.

And we're going to make the tomato sauce that goes with it, and then we'll put together the dish that is a risotto with the duck.

This sounds delicious.

This is going to be great.

Well, let me ask you, Taylor, I noticed when I was walking in here, you've got a beautiful herb garden on the side of the building.

Any of this grow out there?

Yes, the basil- ... and bay leaves and peppers.

I know the peppers did.

Talk about locally sourced.

It's right outside the restaurant.

That's right.

So we've got tomatoes and poblano peppers, celery, garlic, a little basil, bay leaves, and then we're gonna have an onion.

Yeah.

And it's all gonna go into the oven and will be roasted ... and then, pureed and cooked again with red wine and butter.

Yum.

So it's super simple- But- ... but it ends up being- ... a completely different dish Yes.

Correct.

Beautiful.

So this is the tomatoes that have been roasted, and, now we're gonna go into the blender and puree them.

After we've pureed our sauce, we simmered it for about five hours with red wine and butter, and now we've got our ragu.

I'm so intrigued with the artwork that's in here.

It's just lovely, all the, well, hangings and, and everything.

Here is one of my pieces.

This is- I love it.

This has, been around for a while, and it, it's kind of gets straight to the point.

Eat, drink, and be merry.

Come on in- ... and let's do it.

But now you're trained as an artist, correct?

A visual artist.

Yes.

I have a degree in art from Ole Miss, and I did go to culinary school after my first four restaurants.

These were originally made for acoustic purposes.

Right.

And they've, kind of grown into something that I do sometimes.

Oh, they're wonderful.

Yeah.

No, no quilts were hurt in the- ... making of this art.

An artist in the kitchen is a wonderful thing because it's always going to be new and creative, creative fire will be going and, and keeping things going.

This is a- another one of my paintings that kind of shows you how I incorporate the food into my art- Mm-hmm ... and not only the art into the food.

Has that really had the impact that I think it has on your, your job as an artist cook that that's, that's- For sure.

I use it, I use food as my medium- now.

And it's part of the creating process, I think- Mm-hmm ... that is why I insist on doing it such a hard way for not only me, but my staff.

They're all, they're having to guess what's gonna be coming, thrown at them next, and they've really gotten really good at, reading my mind sometimes.

What we've done is we, par-cooked our, our risotto that comes up, comes from Minter City up the road at Two Brooks Farm.

Wonderful.

So we're gonna add a little bit of heavy cream into a hot skillet and just get this going with a little bit of our stock back here.

What is that, the duck stock?

This is duck stock.

So this'll simmer and come together back here in the back while we get our ragu sauce ready.

This is our duck- ... that we have confited.

And what I'll do is we'll pick it apart and we'll use the skin for crackling and the bones for more stocks, and it ends up just like this.

Perfect.

So we add our duck to the skillet first, get it a little bit loose, but not break it up too much.

Then we just add some of our sauce into the sauce pan with the duck, and it's as simple as that.

Greenwood really does have a food culture, you know, with Viking and- Very much Do you think that, that Greenwood is sort of a destination for foodies?

There's a lot of food history here.

Everybody talks about food in the South, and I think that Greenwood is a perfect example of all of the best of that.

Very much so.

It sounds like there's such a family feel here.

Yeah.

You know, the connectedness to the town- Very much so ... and to the people.

We have a, so many loyal, faithful customers, locals that, that just want to try new things.

We love to come here.

We're locals here.

I used to come when I was little, but this is my first time back here in quite a while.

The children used to always order the alligator bites with the Come Back sauce.

That was all they thought that was really something.

That po'boy was not a po'boy, it was a rich boy.

It's just as easy to plate it.

Um, so all we do is we grab our risotto, which is perfect.

Which we w- want to mention is locally grown, locally sourced rice from- Yes ... here in the Mississippi Delta.

Minter City.

Right up the road.

All right.

All right, so there it is.

Ooh, look at that.

I'm telling you, this is slap your mama.

This is how good that looks.

It's delicious.

And then we put, on top we put a little bit of these marinated olives that we make.

Ooh, you marinate your own olives.

That's great.

And it's a secret recipe.

You can do all kinds of stuff with it.

Yeah.

Yep.

And a little bit of pine nuts.

Perfect.

And you're ready to go.

So the olives and the nuts are- add just a little bit of, more richness to the sauce and the, and a little bit of texture, which I think goes well with it.

Mm.

This is fabulous.

I can see why it's on your menu on a regular basis.

Thank you.

Duck ragu risotto, delicious.

All made right here with ingredients that are locally sourced, some from right outside the door.

Taylor, this has been great.

Thank you for letting us come.

Thank you.

Thanks for coming.

We'll be back.

Good.

>> Chef Taylor's family traditions made Fan and Johnny's into a Delta staple.

100 miles south in the heart of the state capital, another chef is sharing his grandmother's legacy.

The historic Belhaven district of Jackson, Mississippi is home to one of the state's newest and most acclaimed restaurants.

My name is Hunter Evans.

I am one of the owners and the chef at Elvie's Restaurant.

Elvie is my grandmother who lived in Metairie, just right outside of New Orleans, so a lot of great memories running around in her house, especially in her kitchen and seeing her, peeling shrimp and cooking.

A lot of great memories sitting around the table with her.

Well, I, I see this postcard.

Um, is this Elvie?

That is Elvie.

Well, she's a very attractive lady.

Uh, so is she still living or did she pass away?

She is not.

She passed away early 2000s.

Okay.

So, so the whole concept of this restaurant was based on your experiences with her.

Yeah.

Well, tell me this.

When you came here, was this building in existence or did you have to build it?

I would say, like, half of it.

Half of it.

It was falling in.

It was an old house, but it was, it was abandoned.

So you've actually rescued a building- Yep ... to put, put your restaurant in.

Yeah, that's why I kind of, you know, naming it after my grandmother felt even more appropriate, was this old house that, you know, feels welcoming.

Um, you show up and we want you to feel known, like you're going to your grandmother's house.

Like you're going to your grandmother's.

This has a decided French feel t Yeah.

Yeah.

How did you put a French restaurant in downtown Jackson, Mississippi?

Yeah.

So I was in culinary school in New York.

Ooh.

And that was probably around 2015, and I started missing home, and the South in general.

And kind of thinking about the South and going back to Mississippi, and really reading books and studying the foodways of the South and who was here, and kind of being inspired by my grandmother and kind of the history of New Orleans and all the different cultures and the people who were there.

And I just really loved kind of the French aspect- Right ... kind of the old -school restaurants.

I thought that was the epitome of how fun dining can, can So we're outside of Elvie's restaurant, and one of the memories of walking around New Orleans was all the street signs are in the sidewalk.

And so, when you arrive at Elvie's, we have the, our name in the sidewalk.

We are inside the dining room at Elvie's, and there's a couple things that we'll show you around.

We have a portrait that we got commissioned by a friend of ours, Lynn Clark, to paint, based off of some old photos, a picture of my grandmother.

So here we have a chef's counter where you can sit and watch the kitchen, watch the cooks.

It's really interactive.

It's really a fun experience, something that we wanted, very transparent in what we're cooking and what the guests are eating.

Some people say you could have gone anywhere, obviously, with your, classic training that you had.

Why did you pick Belhaven or downtown Jackson for, for- Yeah, so Jackson is home.

I was born and raised in Jackson.

Being in New York and studying in New York and then working in the city, it's really amazing and... But I think for only so long, you know?

Then you kinda think about- ... what does the rest of my life and career look like?

Uh, there might've been a girlfriend involved, you know.

Now married, about maybe back- So did the girlfriend help lure you back to Mississippi?

Yeah.

Well, bless her heart.

We're so happy for that.

Yeah.

That's wonderful news.

Yeah.

You hear that?

Southern ladies can always bring the boys back home.

My wife and I fell in love with the neighborhood, the community, and we got married in 2016.

Our first apartment was in Belhaven.

There's beautiful parks, the people, and then we also fell in love with just kinda the history of Belhaven, the neighborhood, and what it means to the city of Jackson.

That's really been the backbone of what we do and how we do it, and it wouldn't be possible without the support of this neighborhood.

So we're going to be cooking something different today.

Yeah.

Tell us about what we're going to cook.

Yeah, so we're cooking redfish almandine, which another dish that you always see, but trout amandine.

And so kind of thinking through French cuisine, but also the question, what is Mississippi?

What are the foodways of Mississippi?

We kinda wanted to take that dish, but use something that is common here.

And in Jackson, Mississippi, redfish is king.

We use a beautiful Texas redfish, and then we top it with a couple different things.

And one of the things we do to help with some nice color- Right ... on the redfish is we're gonna season our piece of fish, and then we're gonna lightly dust it in some, in a little Wondra flour- Right ... kinda help, that, it helps add some nice golden brown- Yeah, right ... color.

And then we're gonna- So what's in the pan?

You have a little- We're going in a really hot pan.

What you got over there, a little butter in that pan?

Or is it just, uh- We're doing just a little oil.

A little oil?

Okay.

So we're probably gonna s- kinda pan sear it, probably for a minute or two to get some nice color.

Just to get some good color.

And then we're gonna finish it in the oven, so it can kinda finish baking in the top of the fish.

And you're not gonna flip it.

You're just gonna leave it on that side.

Nope, we're going presentation side the whole way.

Okay.

I understand that you have been nominated for a James Beard award.

How did that happen?

Yes.

Uh, I'm not sure.

There is a, the larger committee of I think a couple hundred people in our region that- Uh-huh.

And, and so they- ... kinda say, "Hey, these are the people that I think are doing interesting things," or that, "I, I like their food," or whatnot.

And there was another a- award, something that had to do with The New York Times.

Can you tell us about that?

Yeah.

I got a text, and it was a link to the, you know, New York Times, our top 50 favorite restaurants of the year.

And I clicked on it, like, "Oh, this guy just wants me to read it," whatever.

And I was scrolling, and Elvie's was on there, and- There you were.

Yeah, I was.

How exciting.

All right, so the fish is getting a really beautiful color.

Good.

Right.

So we're about to pop it in the oven.

Okay.

All right, so while that's going, so this is bibb lettuce.

And kinda one of the things that we do with that, which is interesting, we're actually gonna saute it.

You're going to saute the bibb lettuce.

And we're not doing, like, a hard saute.

We're just, we're basically wilting it in some butter.

Wilting it with, yes.

So we're gonna butter that up, and that'll be the base.

So the fish will sit on top.

All right.

And then we're gonna build all the layers on top of that.

Right.

Okay.

What you got, a couple of tablespoons of butter over there?

Yeah, just a little butter.

Okay.

We are a French restaurant.

You know, we gotta- Yes ... use lots of butter.

Absolutely.

And then we're gonna season it with just a little salt.

So we're not trying to do, like, sauteed spinach, like, super hard.

You're just gonna give it a little touch.

So if I cut the heat off- Right ... it'll kinda carry, over carry.

And continue to cook a bit And then we're gonna set it aside- Perfect ... until we need it.

We have so many great, local farmers in the state of Mississippi, so, it was kind of a no-brainer that that's kind of the ethos of Elvie's.

Um, we get a ton of vegetables, out of Flora, Mississippi from Two Dog Farms, and then just so many other great farmers that we have met at the farmer's market that come by the restaurant once a week, every other week, with stuff that they're growing and we love to support them and feature their stuff on the menu.

Sweet potatoes.

These are Japanese sweet potatoes.

Sounds very not local, but these are from Two Dog Farms Summer heirloom tomato, can't beat that.

These are some muscadines, and that is, I mean, that's a big muscadine.

So we're juicing these, making sorbet, we're juicing them, we're cooking some pork belly.

That's, that's what we try to do here.

In-season, local, honest, fresh food.

>> Like the tomatoes and the muscadines, these ingredients come from the same fertile ground.

My name is Van Killen.

I am the original founder of Two Dog Farms that we started in 2014.

So today we are packing, restaurant orders, so we'll be making deliveries in the afternoon.

So we get orders, on Tuesday night and, we start picking all the orders early Wednesday morning.

The guys behind me are picking the orders.

We bring it under our packing shed.

Um, it's sorted, weighed, labeled for the individual restaurants, and then it goes on our delivery truck and out for delivery.

So it's less than a few hours old when a local restaurant receives it.

This is where we package everything.

All the produce goes in boxes or bags labeled for individual restaurants and put on the truck.

There's probably 50 different vegetables that are getting packaged.

I've always been a gardener and, growing my own food and just have an interest in that, being able to plant a seed and that seed mature and grow and, you know, two months later you're harvesting this beautiful head of cauliflower or broccoli, and then people buy that from you.

We have a relationship with them, you know, a friendship and a business relationship.

So that's, that's the part I enjoy, just working with them and trying to find, like, the new thing, whatever it, it might be.

>> Back at Elvie's, Chef Hunter Evans is onto the final steps of his red fish almondine.

Oh, yes.

And that's kind of the base.

Then we start with the- Now, now you're gonna dress it up with all the good stuff.

That's right.

Just do just a little bit.

That's the lemon puree.

And then I'm gonna reach behind you where we keep our butter.

Uh-oh, pardon me.

I'm, I'm hiding the butter.

Oh.

All right, so in the butter we keep the capers.

Okay, you've got- That kind of helps ... capers in the butter.

Th- th- th- Yeah ... have they been sauteed in the butter?

Yep.

Okay.

And then Maldon salt, which adds a nice little crunch, nice texture- ... and flavor.

And then almonds.

Right.

And then we hit it with some more herb.

Little more, a little more chive.

Chive.

Little, little parsley.

And then always fresh lemon.

What a beautiful, beautiful entree.

Expertly prepared here at Elvie's.

We can see why that is your favorite menu item.

All right, chef, let's see how it turned out.

I'll take a bite.

Please.

You take a bite.

This looks perfect.

Oh, it flakes so nicely.

Just perfect.

Getting our capers, I love those.

Mm.

Perfect, perfect flavor.

Just delicious.

Buttery, but the wonderful tartness from the lemon.

Yep.

And the almonds, the crunch.

Oh, and the almonds that crunch.

The capers have their own tartness.

Yeah.

That's wonderful.

Yeah.

That was a great lesson in how to prepare red fish almondine.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

>> Today we explored the restaurants of two acclaimed Mississippi chefs and the family traditions that have defined them.

At Fan and Johnny's, we saw how a chef makes food into art, and at Elvie's we learned the importance of local ingredients.

Our food tells us about who we are, where we come from, and where we're going, because here in the South, every dish tells a story.

>> Southern Dish is brought to you by these sponsors: Atmos Energy.

Proud to support the flavors and the stories that make Mississippi a one of a kind culinary destination.

Mississippi Beverage Association >> This program proudly brought to you by Mississippi's own Foundation Gaming and Entertainment, owner and operator of Fitz Casino Hotel in Tunica and Waterview Casino Hotel in Vicksburg.

Foundation Gaming and Entertainment.

Mississippians proudly supporting Mississippi.