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PAUL:

From appetizers to entrees, Jackson's culinary scene is serving up a feast for the senses that's as rich as our Mississippi soil.

Hey, it's Paul Wolf with a front-row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call the podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places, and events that make the City With Soul shine. On today's show, we're dishing with Amanda FitzGerald from The Local Palate about the much-anticipated JXN Food & Wine Festival, where over 30 chefs from across the South will bring their unique flavors to our capital city for a two-day culinary celebration.

What made JXN Food & Wine decide to expand to a two-day festival, and what are you most excited about with those Friday night chef dinners?

AMANDA:

Having last year be a sold-out event was, I think, something we hoped for but still beyond our wildest imagination, as being also sold out even two weeks before the actual event itself is such a win. So, this year we had high expectations and we stepped into it really, you know, knowing that we will have a great response hopefully for Saturday in year two, build on that momentum. And in reality, that's what we're hoping to do year after year. You know, we actually have plans for 2026 and 2027. So each year, we really do want to capture a bigger audience and find different ways to bring Jackson and Mississippi to the palates, to the experience of our guests from the area nationwide. And that's a little bit of that culmination of, okay, here we have our Friday Feast, which we get to do actually with our chef chair, Nick Wallace and his new restaurant, which again, I think just couldn't have worked out better if we tried because, not only are we bringing a new event, we're bringing Friday Feast, but we're bringing it to our chef chair’s new restaurant. So it's just all in all a really good addition and one that we're really proud to have our guests enjoy.

PAUL:

That's an exciting addition to the festival. And I know that tickets are still available for that evening. So make sure you go to jxnfoodandwine.com to get those. How did the partnership between Nick Wallace and Kelsey Bernard-Clark as co-hosts come about, and what kind of unique energy do you think they're going to bring to this event?

AMANDA:

A little insight in this because Nick, you know, as being chef chair, he gets to put names in the hat for who's going to be the co-host with him, obviously. And Kelsey Bernard-Clark is a Top Chef winner, was not on Nick's season. However, it turns out they are fans of one another. So Nick was at BHam Food Plus, which is a great event in Birmingham, Alabama, which is the state that Kelsey's from, another Southern co-host. But she and Nick, I think, actually met for the first time at at BHam Food Plus. And it was then that Nick kind of sparked up that interest in her being the co-host. And sure enough, we were able to sign her on. And I think it'll be a great dynamic. They're both full-energy TV stars. So we'll have that at the demo stage as the host of the festival without a doubt. So it'll be high energy.

PAUL:

You mentioned signing on all these chefs: over 30 chefs this year from all over the region and all over the country. How did you go about selecting who to invite while keeping Jackson's local talent at the heart of things?

AMANDA:

Well, I'm glad you said that because the Jackson chef scene and as we know the dining scene is why we are hosting this wonderful food and wine event in the state Capitol. We have actually over 15 Jackson chefs this year. So first and foremost, we were growing that list at the heart of Jackson's, you know, we have 15 chefs that are going to be on Jackson Alley. Then we also have more chefs that are from Jackson in VIP as well. So, in total, think 18 restaurants at least represented and some of those you could actually double up because we have chefs like Hunter Evans and Chaz Lindsay who actually have more than one restaurant. Damien, too, is there to represent Hal & Mal’s and The Walk-In. So really, start to tack those on and we're well over 20 actually representing Jackson. So we have those that were a must and then beyond that, of course, we have our Top Chefs that Nick brings to the table to say, ‘Hey, I'm a Top Chef. Let's bring other Top Chefs to not only bring cuisine from around the country, but also to demo for the guests on that demo stage that he and Kelsey are hosting.

PAUL:

All right, so let's dive into some of those Top Chefs that you're mentioning.

AMANDA:

Our three Top Chefs this year are Gabriel Pascuzzi and he's coming all the way from Portland, Oregon. So he's going to bring us some of that Northwestern flair. Also, Sarah Welch from Detroit, Michigan. She has two restaurants and I think I saw on Instagram that she commented this is her first food & wine festival. So we better be here to show her a good time. Undoubtedly, we will. And then also Michelle Wallace, who is from Houston, Texas, bringing the heat as Nick likes to say. So I love this female power that we have as a dynamic on the stage and represented through Top Chef fandom.

PAUL:

Is there anything extra we're adding to the lineup for this year's festival?

AMANDA:

We are going to have a dedicated area to show off, you know, we have Jackson Alley, but we're also going to have this Mississippi area too, bringing chefs Katie Dixon from Hattiesburg, John Davis from Oxford. We have Buenos Aires Bakery from Ridgeland, Ty Thames from Starkville, and Jeff Hansel from the Coast. We have a couple of Louisiana guys as well coming from Ruston, Louisiana, representing the North of the state and the Northshore; that's the coast.

And then we have some heavy hitters coming from all over. Luke Joseph is from Birmingham. Vanessa Bordoy from White Limozeen in Nashville. Instagram Famous to have the Dolly Parton Restaurant Hotel. She's the chef from that. So I think people probably know White Limozeen. Sam Forrest from Lexington, Kentucky. And then last but not least, have Brittany Cochran who's coming from Charlotte, North Carolina.

PAUL:

Amanda, you mentioned last year that Jackson has stories worth telling through food. So what stories are you hoping to showcase this year that might even surprise some of us locals?

AMANDA:

I think having a representation of over 20 restaurants from Jackson that no matter what, I think you could have been in Jackson for a year, for your whole life. Maybe you haven't tried all of these spots. So, this is the moment to taste them and then say, I'm going to go be a patron now more often. Because, you know, for example, you've got Hal & Mal’s, that's an institution, but he's got a new spot, The Walk-In. So he's going to share with us another dish that's on the Walk-In menu. And that's new. And that's a new story for him of expanding again, that institution beyond just that one space.

PAUL:

JXN Food & Wine, of course there's the mention of “wine” in there and spirits and beer, too. So tell me about some of the brewers, wineries and distilleries that helping to make this event possible.

AMANDA:

We could not do it without them. So huge thank you to all of those brands that are coming to participate. Jackson Family Wines is our official wine partner that's actually going to be doing all the pairings at our Friday feast. We also have Cathead Distillery that is Jackson. They're right across from the venue. They are going to be present both on the grounds and VIP. They're serving up a lot of delicious cocktails. A good amount of breweries coming in from across Mississippi, Fertile Ground here in Jackson, as well as you've got Ghost River Brewing Company. So, and that's just to mention a few. Bardstown Bourbon is back as our official bourbon sponsor. So there is no shortage of tastiness coming from the beverage angle. And then a huge thanks to Brown Bottling, who they as a group have so many NA options for us that night too. And of course, quenching our water needs as well with Excel Water.

PAUL:

I'm kind of curious about some of the behind-the-scenes moments. Like what kind of spontaneous collaborations or friendships have you seen develop between the visiting chefs and the local chefs during the process of this?

AMANDA:

I'm gonna bring it back to our Friday Feast dinner actually with this a little bit. So, you know, we had a super successful Saturday evening event last year that we're really excited to have in year two chefs connecting with chefs also makes a dinner like Friday Feast such an enjoyable event because you can taste it from kitchen to table. We had Chef Vishwesh at the Saturday festival last year. This year, he's maybe not gonna be present to do his dish, but he will be at the Friday Feast because he and Nick have forged a bond and they are such incredible talented chefs that bring really amazing dishes to us. I say that Vish is not going to be there on Saturday, but that's not entirely true. Vish is going to be there on Saturday, but he's there to sign his cookbook, “I Am From Here.” So you don't want to miss seeing Vish, meeting him and getting a signed cookbook. Kelsey Bernard-Clark, who's our co-host, she has just released a new cookbook as well, “Southern Get-Together.” So she'll be taking time out of the busy co-hosting schedule to sign cookbooks and meet folks. Also, Katie Dixon, who's serving up a dish, she too will be able to sign some cookbooks and Vish Bhatt, who has his, too. So that's not even all of the Mississippi talent that's out there that has cookbooks, but. We're giving everybody some opportunity, though, to get those. And I think that's another take-home that you don't want to miss.

PAUL:

What's been the most unexpected pleasure of working with Jackson's culinary community throughout this whole process of the last two years of putting together these festivals?

AMANDA:

Everyone is so friendly. I don't probably have to say that to you. You know that, but everyone has been so willing to say yes, especially after a successful inaugural year, even to, you know, to plug in Enrika Williams, who's an amazing talent to be a part of Jackson. She's actually doubling down. She's going to be serving up a dish. In fact at the Friday Feast, that's all we asked her to do. And she had so much fun last year, she said, ‘Can I come back for Saturday?’ And who's going to turn that down? So yes, obviously Chef Enrika is going to be, they are both on Friday and Saturday. You know, Hunter Evans has been such a supporter of the festival as everyone is not surprised to hear, I'm sure too, because he loves Jackson and wants Jackson to be on the map and he's helped that happen. But he, too, has been really accommodating for the talent for us. And, you know, I could go on because it's not just them. I mean, everyone is here to say yes. And I think the folks that we weren't able to get in, the chefs that we weren't able to get in was probably from just a pure scheduling conflict.

PAUL:

The JXN Food & Wine Festival, the Friday Night Feast, it's all so amazing, but it's such a minute moment in time and then it's gone. So how are you working to ensure that Jackson is seen as a true culinary year-round destination?

AMANDA:

One thing I want to mention that's really important to the festival is giving back to Jackson and we support and also they support us, the Mississippi Restaurant Association. They have an education fund that we are in support of directly and with our proceeds, but also we bring their culinary students in to help. So you'll see some of these younger, talented folks behind the tables with the chefs interacting, they're culinary students. That is something that we know for a fact is going to give back year-round to. We were really proud to receive some requests for letters of recommendations from the culinary students from last year who are seeking jobs and wanting to be able to add this to their storyline and to their resumes. And we're really excited that we get to do that. So that's giving back, I think beyond what everybody's kind of recognizing that there's this that's going on behind the scenes through the festival. But beyond that, too, we capture a lot of content. Just talking to our digital content manager earlier, and we have all of this content being planned that's going to be evergreen, as well as promoting the festival of which we get to run on The Local Palate social channels, we'll run on the JXN Food & Wine social channels and making sure that we are in fact still kind of tapping that audience to say like, hey, we're here and we get to interact with these chefs. And yes, they're present in March, but they're present, their restaurants are here for you to dine in year-round.

PAUL:

A late-breaking post-script here for you: I was told just after I interviewed Amanda for this podcast that we would have a limited number of tickets for the Saturday festival. Well, I hate to say, they’re completely sold out (no phone calls, please, even I don’t have extra tickets). There are still limited seats available for the special Friday Feast featuring chef dinners with Nick Wallace, Vish Bhatt, Gabrielle Pascuzzi and Enrika Williams. Head to our show notes to learn more. They're at visitjackson.com/soulsessions. This podcast is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's capital city. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Ricky Thigpen, and I'm our managing editor. You want to know more about the great work we're doing to shine a spotlight on Jackson, Mississippi? You can find that at visitjackson.com.

I'm Paul Wolf and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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