Chef Nick Wallace is the Executive Chef at the Nissan Cafe and Nick Wallace Culinary in Jackson, MS. In Mississippi, Nick was voted Best Chef in Jackson for the last four years. In 2020, he was named Best Chef of Mississippi and has remained on the list of Best Chefs in America.
Nick has been featured on numerous national media outlets such as Southern Living Magazine and Food Network. For Food Network, Nick has appeared on Comfort Nation (Season 2), Cutthroat Kitchen, Chopped, and Top Chef (currently). Nick won Chopped (Season 34) in 2017. Nick has also appeared on Food Network Canada’s Fire Masters.
We recently had the opportunity to speak with Nick at length about his culinary journey and his future plans.
TFRLT: I just wanna say thank you. I appreciate your time and your willingness to talk to us. You started out cooking with your grandma. At what age did you decide you were gonna pursue this as a career?
NW: So I grew up in Edwards, Mississippi. I grew up on a farm there. Edwards is about 20 miles west of Jackson. And so that was my habitat for a while. All the men were working for my grandfather cutting wood. Our family business actually was wood. But my grandmother, of course, was at home.
So, being there, the house was centered pretty much in the middle of the farm. You can walk out the front door and chickens could be right there on the porch. Or you could be taking a few steps up and sweet potatoes, you're stepping on sweet potatoes.
We had wild berries growing on a fence line. We had the canal that was there and everything was kind of segregated throughout the farm. So that was my habitat.
Coming up, as a youngster, my grandmother started putting me to work because it was interesting. My grandfather used to offer me to go into the woods. But that was one of the things I really didn't want do because I heard a lot of stories about being stung by several bees, or almost got bit by snake. I didn't like those stories.
So I stayed at home where things pretty much stayed safe for me. I started pulling at my grandmother's aprons, and she was like, okay, well, here you go.
She said, "Go get those dewberries that I told you about on the fence line". So I'd go and she give me a bowl and I'd come back with them. She showed me how she wanted me to wash them and make sure they're clean.
Dewberry was one of those things that has a sour kind of a note. I'll eat a Dewberry, but if I wanted something sweet, I wouldn't. I watched my grandmother throw them in a pot and she made something that I didn't understand at the time.
She started filling up these mason jars, dropping them into boiling water, and I'll hear her kind of scream a little bit because the water splashed back on her, things like that. So I got to see all that. See her turn the bottles upside down once she started feeling them. I got to see all that.
I remember that next morning I'm up at five o'clock with them. My grandmother's had breakfast on the table at five o'clock. The men sit down. We have family style meal every single day. So I remember sitting down grabbing one of those biscuits outta the cast iron skillet, and my grandmother said, uh uh, put some of this on there. And I was like, I don't want that (laughing) you know, I don't want no sour notes in my mouth early in the morning. And she said, no, just please trust me.
She said, pop that biscuit open like you opening up a soda. I popped the top open and I opened up the jar and I put the sauce in the middle, and she said, eat like a burger. I ate it. I fell in love with that woman all over again. (More laughter) , So that was kind of like seeing the power of food evolve throughout my life.
NW: My mom moved me and my sister to Jackson when I was about 10 years old. My mom worked a couple jobs. She was gone all the time. Me and my sister kind of had to fend for ourself in a way. We would go to school, come back home. So I started cooking for my sister.
My sister never really had an interest in food back then. It was me. And since I already had a lot of knowledge from my grandmother, I kind of put it to work. So I did that for years and years coming up. I started working at local pool halls and things like that.
So as I became a teenager I got my first job Fernando's. I got a job there, kind of like an intern because my brother-in-law worked there, and he let me come in and wash the dishes.
I started cutting vegetables and all the prep and that kind of stuff. And then, probably about a year later, once I was legally ready to be there, I got on the line and I saw nothing but chemistry. I had never seen anything like that before. To see this Spanish culture, pump out food the way that they did, it's a choreography.
TFRLT: After a few stops on his way up the ladder including stints at Outback and Bravo Nick was encouraged by mentors to go into the hotel industry, Chef Wallace was hired by Marriott at age 19.
NW: So I was hired at Marriott in downtown Jackson when I was 19. I was there a couple years before I became executive chef.
I had a brigade system for about 50 people. We were pumping out eight, $9 million a year in food. And I learned a lot. Five years down the line, the company wanted to push me even further, and they asked me if I wanted to start doing some tasks and working as a corporate chef?
I said, yes. I went to Anchorage, Alaska and started working for them in Anchorage. I stayed there for a couple years, coming back and forth home reporting to the Marriott here, training and pushing people to get promoted. I was successful with Marriott for 10 years, and I did six years with Hilton.
TFRLT: I watched the Cutthroat Kitchen episode you were on. Then you get to do Chopped, which you won, and Alton Brown was also a judge. How many auditions do you go through before you get on that show?
NW: The first time I went through three Zooms at that time. I never had to show up in person, but I did three Zooms. I never had to show up in person for any of them.
The one that was probably the most extensive was Top Chef. That was the one that you had to go through psych tests. You had to go through a lot of behavior tests. You had to go through stuff that was beyond food.
TFRLT: Really? Why did they put you through that?
NW: So everybody that gets on Top Chef, they have to go through things. And even after Top Chef or even going on the show, doctors stay involved with you evaluating you. It's a lot of stress involved.
But, the one thing that maybe got me accepted was the mindset that "If I get accepted, that's a win period. Regardless if I last through the first round of, or the 10th round, it doesn't matter".
You know, getting out here and getting accepted, I'll be able to change the game in Mississippi. I never did anything to be able to be the first. But if people ever wanted to bring that conversation up, if I had to really look at it whenever I'm retired, I believe that I had a small piece of opening this up for the world to see. To see Mississippi and always defend Mississippi by having a seat at the table, regardless of whatever it is.
TFRLT: I had read something, it might've been in the Mississippi Free Press that you did in the spring, an interview where you talked about yourself coming through your food. How old were you when you felt like you finally achieved that?
NW: I think it was when I opened up my company eight years ago. I think it happened for me then. So I've had Nissan Cafe for about two and a half years. It was very important to me. I have such a level of respect for Mississippi.
I get to kind of set the tone in my way of what the food and the hospitality needs to be and should be. So I can understand that in so many ways. It was an honor opening up the Nissan Cafe.
Now, my moment was when I opened up my own company and decided to go ahead and buy a kitchen. I wanted to open up a kitchen so I can practice my work. I can do catering events, chefs tables, and that kind of stuff there. And I came to Midtown.
NW: When I came to Midtown, it was one of the best decisions that I made. And I'm still here. And with a lot of the partnerships that I've developed, like Ben's Original, Hope Credit Union, Whole Foods, so many different partners.
It's beyond the sponsorship for me. Having a conversation with somebody like Ben's Original, that Mars Food owned, I can say, Hey, I would love to represent your company, but if you sign up with me, that means you sign up with Jackson.
TFRLT: I want to ask you a little bit about Creativity Kitchen. Is that still a going operation?
NW: Funny you asked about Creativity Kitchen. So Creativity Kitchen kind of died down a little bit when Covid hit.
Creativity Kitchen actually started before I owned my own building. Creativity Kitchen started when I was the chef and culinary curator at the Mississippi Museum of Art. I mentioned to Julian Rankin, the museum's director, that I wanted get into the school system.
I asked if the Museum of Art would kind of back us? Can we do this partnership? And we made it work. I went into all 13 of the middle schools. I trained them. I changed the menu every single month. And I trained them every three weeks. All the cafeteria workers, I went and visited as many as I could because I only had Mondays. That was my featured menu.
It was so explosive that I couldn't go to the grocery store without Seeing a parent wanting to hug my neck. (Laughs) Kids would run up and grabbing my knees and say, Hey, this Chef Nick. It was so successful that I got an invite to the White House when Michelle Obama was there.
TFRLT: I wanna be respective of your time here. You've got two new projects coming out besides Creativity Kitchen. Right? You've got Rooted coming out in 2024. That's your cookbook?
NW: Yeah, so I got my cookbook coming, which is Rooted. I've been working with Millsaps. We still have a little bit more work to do, but we're pretty close to being there.
TFRLT: I had also read something there is a concept called Preserve?
NW: Its going to be Preserve Culinary Center. It's going have a small grocery store. It's going to have a cafe. It's going to have a training kitchen.
We're going show folks how to make cheese, the method behind preservation, and making jams and jellies. We'll be holding cooking classes there for families and whoever else wants to come. It will also be a event space for conferences and other events. We're hoping to pull people into this area of Midtown so we can be a part of the change of Midtown.
TFRLT: You've got to be a huge asset for the city and for the community with everything you're doing there.
NW: Well, I think they've been great to me.
TFRLT: I really appreciate your time. It was great to meet you. Great to talk with you. I really appreciate it. It was an honor to have this time with you. Best of luck on everything in the future.
NW: Thank you. Good to meet you.
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