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PAUL:

We have so much to celebrate in the City With Soul. Our music, our literature, the arts, and of course, our legacy of fighting for Civil Rights. But the way to our stomachs and our hearts is our amazing food.

Hey, it's Paul Wolf with the front row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call our podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places, and events that make the City With Soul shine.

Today, Elvie’s chef Hunter Evans is here as a James Beard finalist for Best Chef South, his second year in a row being nominated for this prestigious award. It's kind of like the Grammys of food. And if that's not enough, Hunter is going to share a big bit of news with us about a classic Jackson restaurant and his plans for its future. But first, the Beard nomination. Chef, how does it feel?

HUNTER:

Yeah, it feels really good. Just so much work and so much time, I think, has put into it with our staff. And, you know, I started cooking since I was 18 and it was something that I always kind of dreamed of.

PAUL:

How does the James Beard Foundation kind of come across a Hunter Evans and go, ‘Hey, you know what? He's, he's one of the guys who got to put on the ballot?’

HUNTER:

So they've actually changed the way that they, I guess, field nominees and whatnot. There are some processes you have to apply. And then there's a very large committee, I think for the nation, kind of broken down into smaller regions and I think they lean on these people and say, ‘Hey, what is interesting? What's going on? What's new that's opened up? Any chefs that you like?’ I think people kind of start just compiling information and then I assume they kind of go through that and then that is when you become a finalist which is the 20 people for that category. After the 20 people really, you kind of get tested. There's another committee and they come in and they eat and they score you. And we don't really know what that is on specifically. And then the top five scores out of those judges going out to eat, whatnot, make it and become a finalist.

PAUL:

Did you know when they were in the restaurant having the meal?

HUNTER:

No.

PAUL:

Okay. So you didn't have the pressure of like, ah, most important meal of my life here.

HUNTER:

Right. Right. You can try. You can play the game. You can try to figure out who's on the committee. I think they are pretty transparent about that. And then, you know, look up pictures and whatnot. And it just got too overwhelming to try to focus on 12 people and when they were going to walk in the doors. And instead, you know, we were just going to focus on everyone that walked in the door and keep doing what we're doing, what we believe in. And yeah, so here we are.

PAUL:

Because that's the most important, right? It's not just about awards. It's about the 365 days a year, pleasing your diners, pleasing your customers, giving them the best meal of their life.

HUNTER:

And we got nominated last year.

PAUL:

Yeah, you did. You were semi -finalist last year.

HUNTER:

Yeah, and I kind of fell for that and kind of got in my head. And, you know, I felt like it kind of changed how I cooked or who I was cooking for, what I needed to do to impress. And this year, you know, I kind of tried to let go, lean into my staff, just keep pouring into them and, you know, what they're doing. And it's just...It's more enjoyable that way.

PAUL:

Yeah. So unpack that a little bit. It got into your head, you said: what do you mean by that?

HUNTER:

I mean, there's a little imposter syndrome of being, you know, a small little restaurant in Mississippi and kind of making a splash on a national stage and you know, well, was it a fluke? Did we just get lucky - and kind of squeeze yourself in, especially as a creative person, you kind of put up these like expectations and whatnot. And that is really the opposite of when I'm cooking or creating the best experience in food... is letting all that go, you know, to the side and kind of just being a little more open and trusting the process.

PAUL:

So if you let that go, what pushes you to be better each and every meal you make?

HUNTER:

It's really just kind of being true to ourselves, the staff, to the farmers, to the season, you know, you kind of get, you can kind of get caught with, oh, I need to cook this or, I need to bring in a certain product and you kind of maybe sinking might be too strong, but more grounded doing what we do, what we know how to do and what we love to do.

PAUL:

Yeah. Because on paper you call yourself “an aall-day New Orleans cafe,” but you're, you're seasonal Southern with a French influence. Is that, is that a good way to describe what you do?

HUNTER:

Yeah. I've kind of coined the term Mississippi French. I feel like we're kind of exploring, you know, there's the history of French cuisine all throughout New Orleans and some of the people that came through Mississippi and settled along the Mississippi River. We're taking that influence. You know, what does that look like today? The relationships that we have with farmers and fishermen. How do we use their products? And so it's kind of changed. It's kind of through the lens of multiple things. And Mississippi French seems and feels good.

PAUL:

What do your guests say is their favorite dish right now at Elvie's?

HUNTER:

Oh, probably the rabbit dish, on the menu it is Lapin Chasseur, which is hunter's chicken in French. Basically braised Mississippi rabbit. And then we kind of pick it apart and then we season it, we take some of the stock that it's reduced in and cook it down, put it back together and make these little croquettes, deep fry them so you have this like crunchy like hockey puck of braised tender rabbit if you will. And then we have a really nice sauce of some housemade pancetta, marsala, really good mushrooms we also started getting locally. Yeah, it's just like really kind of a rich classic kind of old school feel of a dish. But I think it's kind of new and refreshing.

PAUL:

And what are you really enjoying cooking these days?

HUNTER:

I love cooking whole fish, reaching out, seeing what's fresh, what was just caught. And we'll do it every once in a while as a special whole fish, probably for a couple of people. And we do this really beautiful salt crust dough, wrap it up. It's kind of like Play-Doh and we can make designs so it looks like a fish, looks like scales, it's got fins and whatnot. It just is like a really fun way to cook fish. A really beautiful way to cook fish. It gets so moist and seasoned without ever actually applying salt because there's so much salt in the dough and it kind of steams it from within. Super classic and fun.

PAUL:

Almost kind of sounds like a Beef Wellington with seafood, right?

HUNTER:

Yeah.

PAUL:

So what's coming up for Elvie’s at the Belhaven Town Center? What's next on your plate after, of course, bringing home a James Beard Award, bringing it back from Chicago to Mississippi?

HUNTER:

Yeah, we got some pretty exciting things. May drop a bomb. We are looking to take over the Mayflower Cafe downtown.

PAUL:

Are we breaking news on this podcast right now?

HUNTER:

This is the first, yeah.

PAUL:

Well, we've got the scoop. You're going to bring the Mayflower back to its original glory.

HUNTER:

Yeah.

PAUL:

How exciting is that for this city and for you?

HUNTER:

Yeah, we're super excited. I mean, our goal since the beginning has always been we want to be in the city and we want to be intentional about the city and where we are doing business and who we're doing business with. So super excited when this opportunity came to bring back like the most iconic restaurant in Jackson.

PAUL:

Wow. Wow. Wow. This is big news indeed. One of the oldest restaurants or the oldest restaurant in the city…

HUNTER:

Yeah.

PAUL:

…will have your touch on it. Now we can't wait to see what you do with that.

Someone with your level of talent, someone with your skillset could write your ticket anywhere, but you choose to be here in your hometown in Jackson, Mississippi. Why do you stay? Why do you make this a better place?

HUNTER:

I think if you ask a lot of people in Jackson, they're gonna say the people in there. That's definitely one reason. We live in Belhaven, my wife and two kids, and we absolutely love it. Really, I think there's just a lot of opportunity here from a business standpoint of what we want to do with a restaurant. You know, if I was still in New York, I'd be getting home at 2 a .m., you know, cooking for someone else still. So, it was really cool to come back and latch on to those people and, you know, collectively help bring Elvie’s and a dream to life, to the city. And yeah, now I feel like we have support beyond. So, you know, we got we got a long road ahead of us.

PAUL:

That's Chef Hunter Evans of Elvie’s. And as you heard, soon to be of the Mayflower. It's exciting to have the younger generation step in and keep Jackson traditions alive. And kudos to Jerry Kountoris for all those years of keeping his family's Mayflower restaurant a part of the city.

Soul Sessions 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 do to help make Jackson, Mississippi a better place? Well, you can find that at our website. It's visitjackon.com.

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

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