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 two spots along the Mississippi River, where sharing family recipes has helped keep their legacies alive.

Two kitchens, two stories, One Mississippi.

Southern Dish.

Right along the banks of the Mississippi River, one restaurant is serving up dishes that blend rich cultural influences with a cherished family recipe.

Hello.

Good morning.

I'm Lydia.

David Gammill.

Nice to meet you.

Thank you.

I'm so happy to be here.

Welcome to Fat Mama's.

Oh, I can't wait to find out all about Fat Mama's.

This looks like such a fun place to be.

Absolutely.

You ready to go take a look?

Oh, I'd love to.

Let's do it.

My name's David Gammill.

We're in Natchez, Mississippi, at Fat Mama's Tamales restaurant.

David, explain to me how you happen to be part of a place called Fat Mama's Tamales.

In the '80s, there was a local woman that made tamales for a long, long time, and she had passed away, and for a couple of years you couldn't get tamales.

Oh, no.

And my parents said, "Let's make tamales one Saturday."

So they did, all day, and by the end of the night, the tamales were finally done.

They pulled them off.

People were tired.

Kids are asleep on the sofa.

And they tasted them, and they were not good.

Oh, no.

And everybody said, "Well, at least it's over with."

And then the next morning, we had a tamale with breakfast, tamale with lunch- ... tamale with dinner.

We finally ate all the tamales.

My parents said, "Let's do it again, but let's change one ingredient."

The next Saturday, made them again.

Not much better.

Next Saturday, make them again.

And this goes on for about a year, year and a half.

And the tamales are steadily getting better, and my parents decide to open a part-time restaurant.

And they had everything squared away except for a name.

And my sister and I had been calling my mom Fat Mama because she's going to have to eat all the messed up tamales.

But once Fat Mama's Tamales got uttered, it was just like, "That's the name.

There's no question about it.

It's Fat Mama's Tamales."

You have a great looking bar area here.

I can see that you've got all sorts of different schools represented.

Tell me about the donkey that's up there on top.

Yes, ma'am.

We bought a couple donkeys for our 25th anniversary- ... and had some local artists paint them, and that's one of the most unique ones.

And we've got it on display, and I've got the others at the Visit Natchez office as well.

Wonderful.

Tell me about this table, David.

Yeah.

Just a baseball card table we made with a couple of Mississippi natives, along with other baseball stars, that we thought would be a little unique and nostalgic for anybody that grew up in the '70s, '80s, '90s.

My son and I spent a night making this.

Oh, that was a good project.

Enough to make my son, I think, not interested in baseball cards anymore.

Or maybe not table making.

That's right.

And over here I see you've been written up in a number of magazines.

Over the years, Southern Living has done a couple articles on us.

Our pickles are up for best food product of the South issue 2026.

We've had some folks through the doors, and people have enjoyed it, and the magazine, Southern Living in particular, has taken notice.

Well, now, how did you come into the business?

So my parents opened the doors in '89, and they ran it through 2005.

And they retired, I graduated college, and literally the day of my last exam, I finished my final, hopped in the car, drove straight to Fat Mama's.

My parents said, "Here are the keys.

We'll see you after work.

We're done."

That was in August of 2005.

And from that point forward, it's been out of the frying pan and in the skillet.

Hurricane Katrina hit two weeks after that.

So I designed a new restaurant, designed a building, purchased property, dealt with a hurricane, and started, for me, running a business, all within six months.

Come on back and look at the kitchen.

Oh, this is a nice space, David.

Yeah, absolutely.

We were able to kind of build it around what we had going for the restaurant.

I noticed that the first thing we see is your margarita machine.

That's right.

That's the Knock You Nekkid margarita machine, and she will be getting plenty of work today.

And then as we pan on down, we've got our sandwich station, speed oven, gringo pie, nachos, tacos, cheese sauce, all our warm goods.

And I believe we got Sarabeth, our general manager, going to make a gringo pie and some street corn.

Wonderful.

Well, let's get cooking.

Let's do it.

All right.

So, Ms.

Lydia, this is our general manager, Sarabeth.

Ms.

Lydia.

Hi, Sarabeth.

Hi.

Nice to see you.

And I believe today Sarabeth's going to be making our street corn bowl, which is fire-roasted corn.

It's iced up with fresh jalapenos, Cotija cheese, lime slice, and chopped onion, and our homemade chipotle sauce as well.

It's a bowl version of a Mexican street corn on the cob you may have seen elsewhere.

And it's nice and light So you serve this as the appetizer?

A lot of people get a whole bowl as a meal.

Oh, good.

We serve small cups as well, but it's popular.

It's been a hit, for sure.

So you do the corn, your roasted corn, you cut it off the cob and put it in a bowl.

Absolutely.

And it's ready to go.

Ready to roll.

Natchez, it's a small town.

It lives and looks a lot bigger than it is.

We've got a fairly big size downtown, couple businesses and industries in town.

It's a great town.

I grew up here, I'm happy to live here, and I'm happy to raise my family here as well.

Dating all the way back to 1716, Natchez is Mississippi's oldest city.

Named for the native people who once lived here, it's been a vibrant hub of culture and community for more than 300 years.

Well, Natchez is a tourist town.

Yes, ma'am.

How many people do you get in here that are local as compared to the number of tourists that you have coming through?

It's interesting.

It's always had a lot of tourists.

From back when the river was the highway, when the boats would come into town, it would get flooded with travelers.

And then the Natchez Trace, the Deep South aspect of it pulls a big crowd.

The views of the river.

The river used to be the highway.

It used to be the main thoroughfare.

That's where the boats went before there were roads and trails.

Cities along the river are usually some of the oldest, much like Natchez is for Mississippi.

It puts a lot of travelers through town that wouldn't be here otherwise.

And it's like being on the side of the interstate for the last 200 years, being on the river.

We also get a ton of Europeans.

Well, tell me about that.

What do they think about tamales?

They seem to enjoy them a great deal.

It's real popular to go from Memphis to New Orleans or New Orleans to Memphis on the Blues Highway.

Right, Highway 61.

And blues and jazz are huge in Europe.

More so probably than in the States.

And traveling the music route in the South and eating authentic Southern food is high on their list of things to do, it seems.

A lot of people think tamales are Mexican, and they are, but they're also have a Native American background.

And if you'll notice, all the river towns, Memphis, Vicksburg, Greenville, Natchez, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, have always had tamales.

We're also going to make a Gringo Pie, which is one of our house specialties.

Which is three tamales unwrapped out of the corn husk with our homemade chili on top, shredded cheese, diced purple onion, and sliced jalapeno peppers.

And this is one of your best sellers?

Best seller, day in and day out.

Okay.

It's phenomenal.

Making tamales is incredibly labor heavy, I guess is the right word.

You've got to make your masa, you've got to cook your meat, shred your meat, and then you've got to assemble your tamales, which is the meat inside the masa.

Then wrap with corn husk, and then they take an incredibly long time to cook.

Purple onion.

All that intensive labor makes tamales a labor of love.

And there's a reason for people that make them at home, you usually see them around Christmas, or 4th of July, or special holidays, maybe a birthday.

But people don't make them regularly all the time, other than obviously a restaurant.

Those are just pickled jalapenos.

And there you go.

That's got a little bit of everything from the menu, the tamales, the chili, cheese, and whatnot.

It's a sampler.

So it's like a sampler, right there.

A bit of a sampler on a plate.

A sampler, the Gringo Pie.

Absolutely.

That sounds so good.

I'd like to taste this, if I may.

We'll be happy to get you set up.

Well, would you like to start with just a pure tamale on a cracker?

I think that would be a great way to begin.

All right.

Let's see if we can get it going here.

Of course, remove the corn husks.

Always.

It's a long chew without.

All righty.

Here's my... Oh, it's a big piece.

All right.

Absolutely.

And what goes on top of that?

I recommend a fire and ice pickle.

Okay.

All right, cheers.

Cheers.

I'm still at heart a tamale guy.

I can't not try them.

I'd never forgive myself.

Maybe they're the best, maybe they're the worst.

Spicy today.

Delicious.

It's a good balance.

Mm-hmm.

If I'm somewhere and they have tamales, we're ordering them and we're trying them, to the chagrin of whoever I'm with.

All right.

I'm going in to the street corn.

Absolutely.

And you say some people order this for a luncheon.

Awesome.

Yeah.

It's a perfect light lunch of roasted corn, cilantro, fresh jalapenos, and chipotle sauce, with a little lime juice.

Fat Mama's has been fortunate to be a part of Natchez history since the late '80s.

Certainly tamales even longer than that.

And to have Fat Mama's in Natchez and to keep Fat Mama's going is important.

All right, so this is the Gringo Pie.

Yep.

Gringo Pie, tamales, chili, shredded cheese, chopped onions, and sliced jalapeno peppers.

All right.

I'm going in.

Go for it.

Hopefully we contribute to make Natchez a little more unique, a little more special, in whatever way Fat Mama's can.

Mm.

That's delicious too.

So Natchez can continue to grow and be a destination location in the Southeast.

David, thank you so much for showing us around and letting me try this delicious food from Fat Mama's Tamales.

And the only thing I can say is, I love hot tamales.

[laughing] Fat Mama's Tamales isn't the only restaurant along the Mississippi sharing a family recipe.

More than 250 miles north, inside one of Tunica's most popular casinos, another restaurant is serving up a dish that has been passed down straight from Italy.

Hello.

Hello.

How are you doing?

I'm Lydia.

Tony Scudiero.

So happy to meet you.

Well, let's take a walk around.

All right.

My name is Tony Scudiero.

The Fitz Casino has been here well over 20 years.

So we figured with the space that was here, this would be a great place to put a restaurant.

One night after a dinner, the owners came up with the idea of, "Hey, let's name this after my dad, Dominick," who had been in the hospitality business well over 50, 60 years.

Now, this logo is actually his hand signature.

His own hand signature.

That's how he signed his checks.

We have basically our family history is up here on these walls.

My father is the one in the dark suit jacket.

He's got the tie on.

My grandmother, Rosa, is sitting right there at the table with him.

So other than your family connection, how did you get into this business?

I'd been going to Las Vegas since I was basically 9, 10 years old.

And I was in real estate, and I had some deals that fell through.

So I went home and I looked at my wife and I said, "How would you like to move to Las Vegas?"

And she said, "Let's go."

Just like that.

Just like that.

And I went through dealing school and started learning the trade.

Learning the business.

And then just started working my way up from there.

Of course, my mother and father.

This is my sister.

And of course, the gentleman sitting here in a very sharp dress suit is me.

And every Sunday, the families would get together over at my Grandma Rosa's house.

It would be spaghetti and meatballs, and lemon chicken, and of course, a salad and garlic bread.

It was just like clockwork, every Sunday.

I wanted to use some of those recipes in here, which we have been able to do.

And the sauce, the spaghetti sauce that is on several of the dishes, is actually a handwritten ingredient list that we have carried over to here.

Well, Chef Gene, actually, he's the restaurant manager.

He is most comfortable in the kitchen.

And when we saw his talent, we just said to ourselves, "That's where we want him."

Chef, what are we going to make today?

We're going to make spaghetti and meatballs.

Well, this looks wonderful.

Tell me how you do it.

Well, first of all, we're going to start off with an 80/20 ground beef.

And then we're going to incorporate some beautiful herbs and breadcrumbs in it.

And we're going to mold them out, and we're going to put them in the oven and we're going to bake them.

Fabulous.

All right.

Well, let's get going.

My name is Gene Burke.

I'm the chef here at Fitzgeralds Casino at Dominicks's Restaurant.

One of my first meals I ever cooked was shrimp étouffée.

My mother was sick.

She was diagnosed with cancer at the time.

She wasn't able to cook.

She was at home going through therapy.

My brothers and my father was there.

And boys, we had to eat.

So we had everything in the pantry that I needed.

I found the Betty Crocker cookbook, the little red book, and followed the recipe and put everything together, and the meal turned out great.

My siblings loved it.

My father loved it.

At the time, I was getting ready to take a plate to my mother, but she was so sick that she really couldn't enjoy that dish.

But when she began to get better, and I guess went into remission, she was able to enjoy it.

And she asked me, said, "Hey, could you go recreate that dish again for me?"

And I'd had so many accolades from her about the dish, and it kind of gave me the fuel to keep cooking and wanting to cook.

So that was my passion right there.

That's how I really got it, from her.

We're going to add about three eggs to this.

Okay.

And then we just- Going in with your hands.

... we're going in.

And then we're going to go in and we're going to mix everything up.

And what I try to do, I just try to get everything incorporated without over-mixing it, because the meatballs will become tough.

They'll get real tender, don't they?

Real tender and moist.

That's the- Yeah.

Make sure it's mixed up, but not overdone.

So we got the meatballs, probably as mixed as they're going to get right now.

So I use like a two-ounce scoop.

Uh-huh.

I just take them, smooth them out.

Just make sure I got enough in there.

Yeah.

Just pat them out.

Good size.

Good size meatball.

Good size meatball.

We want to roll it up and kind of compact it just a little bit.

And then we're just going to drop it.

Just put that in a pan with a little parchment.

That's it.

A little parchment paper.

And we're going to actually bake these off.

And then they'll be ready to go in Mama Rosa's sauce.

They'll be ready for Mama Rosa's sauce.

I'm going to tell you something, and this is very truthful.

We maybe went through a couple of batches before he nailed it.

And my sister has tasted the sauce, which she would definitely know, and of course, my wife and myself.

And he had just done a great job in recreating their recipes.

And this is her recipe for the red sauce.

Here, we call it Tonys sauce.

Tony's.

Once you get it all in there.

We're going to cook this for three and a half, it cooks for three and a half hours.

Three and a half hours.

Slow cook for three and a half hours.

We're constantly are stirring it making sure it's being melded together and all the flavors are just melding together.

So it takes a long, slow process- Long, slow process ... to get the wonderful flavors all happy and married together.

Now, this is a beautiful sauce.

It's very thick, very just wonderful looking sauce.

Yeah.

It's a good sauce.

These are actually some of our best customers that have been in here 10, 15, 20 times.

And in fact, I've got a lot more that I've got to put up because now that people have seen it, they want up on the wall.

Yeah.

If you're a good customer and a popular patron, you get your picture on the wall.

There it is right there.

Yep.

That's wonderful.

Now, this one has a lot of history behind it because this actually is the night we went to see Elvis Presley.

On the left is my aunt and my cousin, and again, Grandma Rosa.

That's me, my mom, and dad.

That's how close we were to the stage at the Las Vegas International.

And Elvis Presley was on stage, right?

He was on stage.

And when he came by, as he closed the act, he reached down, he shook my hand.

How about that?

You've shaken hands with Elvis.

I shook hands with Elvis.

How many people wish they could say that?

Oh, it was- That's exciting ... it was a great night.

And he was my idol.

I wanted to be Elvis when I was that age.

And what's really cool about that is my kids also enjoy Elvis Presley.

They understand who he is.

I've explained to them, passed down to them the pictures and what they meant, where I was, and so now they've adapted their interests into Elvis Presley.

It's got to be three to a serving.

Oh my word, look at that.

Just going to nestle those inside there.

Yeah.

On top of those.

I think they expanded .

Exactly.

I'm just going to drizzle there some of that Tonys sauce.

Come around with it.

So that's about, oh what, three quarters of a cup of sauce on your serving.

Exactly, per serving.

Isn't this beautiful?

Sprinkle with a little grated Parmesan cheese.

Little Parmesan.

Just garnish with a little parsley on top, fresh parsley.

Oh, boy.

Go in for a meatball.

Nice and tender.

I tend to wear spaghetti.

And this is that wonderful bucatini pasta.

Bucatini pasta.

Mm.

Excellent flavor.

Garlicky like you'd want it to be.

Delicious.

I recommend this.

Thank you so much.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

I love being here with you.

As a kid growing up, my dad never let my shoes get to the point to where they were wore out.

And I asked him one day, I said, "What's that all about?"

Yeah.

And he said, as a child, they were so poor that his mother had to put cardboard in the shoes in order for the snow not to get through.

Oh.

My father was my great inspiration.

My dad loved Las Vegas, golf, enjoyed life, was instrumental in my getting into this business.

He was just one of those guys that once you met him, you'd never forget him, and he never forgot you.

This restaurant has meant so much to myself- ... and my family.

In this episode of Southern Dish, we explored how two Mississippi restaurants are preserving family legacies by sharing recipes that mean the most to them.

At Fat Mama's Tamales in Natchez, we saw how the pursuit of perfection can turn into a community favorite.

And at Dominicks's in Tunica, we discovered how one man's treasure can be treasured by all.

Our food tells us about who we are, where we came 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