Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant instructed his wife’s friend — whose nonprofit was receiving millions in subgrants from the welfare department he oversaw — to pay NFL legend Brett Favre $1.1 million, according to a new court filing.

Nancy New alleges Bryant directed this and other spending, resulting in a massive scandal and what officials have called the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history.

Nancy New, a friend of former First Lady Deborah Bryant, and her son Zach New have pleaded guilty to several criminal charges, including bribery and fraud. As part of their plea, a favorable deal which guarantees they will spend no time in state prison, the News have agreed to cooperate in an ongoing criminal investigation.

The Mississippi Department of Human Services is also suing Nancy New civilly, asking the court to make her repay $19.4 million. The department alleges New and 37 other defendants, including Favre, violated federal rules when they spent or received money from a federal block grant called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

But Bryant, who had the statutory oversight responsibility over the department’s spending, has remained insulated from official liability. Mississippi Today, in its investigative series “The Backchannel,” first reported the former governor’s role in the scandal based on a trove of text messages between Bryant, Favre and other key defendants in the case.

New’s filing marks the first time Bryant has been directly, publicly accused of wrongdoing by main defendants in the case.

“Defendant reasonably relied on then-Governor Phil Bryant, acting within his broad statutory authority as chief executive of the State, including authority over MDHS and TANF, and his extensive knowledge of Permissible TANF Expenditures from 12 years as State Auditor, four years as Lieutenant Governor, and a number of years as Governor leading up to and including the relevant time period,” reads New’s response to the MDHS civil complaint filed Monday.

New rejected the notion officials have made throughout the three-year investigation that John Davis, Bryant’s appointed welfare agency director who is also facing criminal charges, was a rogue state bureaucrat who independently chose to misspend tens of millions of welfare dollars.

The bombshell response from Nancy New, her sons Zach New and Jess New and her nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center, who are also defendants in the civil suit, argue that MDHS is more at fault than it has represented. The court filings name dozens of officials and state employees who acted alongside Davis to perpetuate the scheme — with Bryant named first in the list.

Bryant’s spokesperson Denton Gibbes denied New’s assertion. “She’s pointing her finger at everybody but the Easter Bunny,” Gibbes told Mississippi Today. “This is just legal hogwash.”

THE BACKCHANNEL: Phil Bryant had his sights on a payout as welfare funds flowed to Brett Favre

Bryant and the dozens of other state actors are referenced in the filing as “MDHS Executives.” New’s answer also claims that Davis and MDHS Executives directed her “to provide $5 million on behalf of the State of Mississippi to Prevacus, Inc. during a meeting with Jake Vanlandingham at Brett Favre’s home.”

The News ended up paying Prevacus, an experimental concussion drug company, and its affiliate PreSolMD a total of $2.1 million — payments that were pivotal to the criminal investigation and charges against the News.

In his last year as governor, Bryant was heavily involved in discussions about luring Prevacus to Mississippi, specifically to a new development called Tradition that Bryant had touted. Bryant helped the company find investors, make political connections and he even agreed to accept stock in Prevacus in January of 2020, Mississippi Today first reported in its investigative series, “The Backchannel.” His deal with Prevacus was derailed when agents from the state auditor’s office made arrests shortly after.

The News’ recent filings are the first to reveal that state officials and employees actually intended to pay Prevacus $5 million through the nonprofit. The filing does not specifically say which “MDHS Executives” directed this investment.

Mississippi Community Education Center is also countersuing MDHS, claiming that the welfare agency breached their contract. The nonprofit asks that if it is required to pay back any of the funds as a result of the civil suit, it should be able to recoup the same amount back from MDHS, plus other relief.

An additional motion to stay discovery in the case asks the court to allow Nancy and Zach New to wait until their criminal cases have concluded before complying with discovery in the civil suit. Their April plea agreement suggests that investigators may have their sights on other co-conspirators that the News will be expected to help officials prosecute.

In the News’ motion to stay, their attorney finds several faults with MDHS’s allegations.

Primarily, the News argue that TANF rules have always allowed states to spend the block grant in a variety of ways, including on programs that serve people who earn up to 350% of the poverty line, which is currently $97,125. The state has even boasted in its official state plans about how it has taken advantage of the flexibility of TANF dollars.

Only now, the News argue, after many of these “absurd expenditures” have come to public light, has the state revised its interpretation of the TANF statute to be more narrowly tailored to activities that actually help the poor.

“MDHS has had a 25-year love affair with TANF’s extreme flexibility. MDHS cannot now divest itself of its contractual obligations simply because it is politically and financially expedient to do so,” the motion reads. 

The News have been targeted by investigators and law enforcement, the filings argues, without holding others who perpetuated this pattern of spending accountable.

“The New Defendants will be substantially and irreparably harmed if forced to participate in discovery amidst giants poised for what promises to be a no-holds-barred death match,” the motion reads. “…The New Defendants have taken responsibility for their roles, yet they continue to be thrust into the crossfire by powerful forces fighting over political futures and tens of millions of dollars. The State wants to avoid liability and embarrassment, the Feds want their money back, and the public wants answers.”

Read the entire motion below.

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Gov. Tate Reeves has faced a litany of unprecedented problems in his first term as Mississippi governor: a bitter fight for power with legislative leaders, turmoil and scandal within multiple state agencies, consistent staff turnover, costly natural disasters, and a life-disrupting pandemic.

But thanks to a racially progressive update to the state constitution, Reeves could soon face another unprecedented problem: a crapshoot of electoral politics in which the majority party incumbent is in real danger of losing the Governor’s Mansion.

As the 2023 statewide election cycle revs up in coming days, here’s the scenario that should keep Reeves — one of the most unpopular governors in America — up at night.

The governor’s nightmare election scenario begins, of course, in the August 2023 Republican primary. Reeves’ allies have stalked every move of Speaker of the House Philip Gunn for years. Gunn, the third-term Republican leader, has been transparent about both his disdain for Reeves and his consideration of running against him in 2023.

Gunn, who has plenty of conservative bonafides and is well-known by the GOP donor class, has a name ID problem outside the Jackson metro area that he’d need to start addressing in short order. Still, many prognosticators believe a Gunn primary challenge could stretch Reeves thin both financially and politically.

Besides Gunn, these prominent Republicans have heard from advisers about how a primary of Reeves could play out:

• Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who is fresh off a high-profile takedown of Roe v. Wade. Fitch, a former state treasurer who has coasted into both statewide offices she’s held, has spent tens of thousands of dollars to make sure voters know about her role in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case.

• Secretary of State Michael Watson, who hails from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, which has traditionally been Reeves’ most reliable base of voters. Watson would certainly look to pick off voters to the right of Reeves who have been less than enamored, to say the least, with the incumbent’s leadership.

• Former state representative Robert Foster, who unsuccessfully ran against Reeves in the 2019 primary for governor. Foster, a far-right conservative who has been banned from Facebook and Twitter for his misinformation posts about the pandemic and the 2020 presidential election, garnered 18% of the 2019 primary vote.

If one of these four candidates ran, Reeves would likely have to spend at least $1 million to lock up the primary victory. If two or three of these candidates ran, the GOP primary could be considered a toss-up.

But winning the Republican primary is the very least of Reeves’ concerns.

Next, of course, Reeves would need to size up the Democratic nominee for governor. The most notable Democrat considering a gubernatorial run is Brandon Presley, the longtime northern district public service commissioner.

Presley, who speaks with a deep country drawl and is an actual relative of Elvis, is a native of northeast Mississippi, the other region of the state where Reeves has performed well. Presley has established a long political career focused on common-sense, apolitical priorities like expanding broadband access across the state and keeping large corporations from jacking up utility bills.

A political moderate who self describes as pro-life and pro-Second Amendment, Presley also boasts a genuine, close relationship with the state’s top Black Democratic leaders — something most white Democratic statewide candidates have never been able to say. 

But Presley’s advisers believe he has legitimate crossover appeal, especially with rural white Mississippians — people who have lately voted Republican. Among the Grand Ol’ Party faithful who have recently written checks to Presley’s campaign committee is Amory businessman Barry Wax, who served on Reeves’ 2019 campaign finance committee but wrote his potential Democratic challenger a $25,000 check in 2021.

But even a strong Democratic challenger in Presley wouldn’t be Reeves’ biggest 2023 problem.

His biggest problem was not a problem four years ago. It wouldn’t have been a problem 132 years ago. That’s because in 1890, Mississippi political leaders wrote the state constitution and added a provision that required candidates for statewide office do two things: 1) win a majority of the popular vote, and 2) win a majority of the state’s House of Representatives districts.

If no candidate checked both boxes, the state House of Representatives would vote to seat a winner. This happened at least once in state history — in 1999, when the majority Democratic House seated Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ronnie Musgrove over Republican candidate Mike Parker.

The provision was written in the early days of the Jim Crow era as a way to keep Black Mississippians from being elected to statewide office. But in 2020, after the murder of George Floyd and as the Black Lives Matter movement gripped the nation, an overwhelming 79% of Mississippi voters elected to remove this provision from the constitution.

Beginning in 2023, all statewide candidates must do to win is garner a majority of the popular vote. That’s it. If no candidate garners 50% of the vote on Election Day, the top two vote-getters advance to a late November runoff.

This means that for the first time in 133 years, an independent candidate will have an absolutely real shot at winning statewide office. This is where the 2023 scenario really turns nightmarish for Reeves.

There are a number of political moderates with popularity and some name ID who, if they ran for governor in 2023, could make a splash:

• Bill Waller Jr., the former state Supreme Court chief justice who forced a runoff with Reeves in the 2019 Republican primary for governor. Waller, whose late father Bill Waller Sr. served as governor in the 1970s, considered running as an independent in 2019, but opted to run as a Republican because of the now-defunct constitutional provision. Despite an eleventh-hour entry into the 2019 primary and little time to raise money or garner much momentum, Waller came within 8 points of defeating Reeves.

• Toby Barker, mayor of Hattiesburg and former Republican state representative. Barker, a millennial, is an impressively popular figure among Hattiesburg’s Republicans and Democrats alike. Here’s how Barker spoke of his independent political label: “I think it started with my generation — people identifying more with causes or people rather than a set, rigid partisan ideology. I think people understand that there’s a lot of gray out there… If you care about your community and seek to take care of needs and lead everyone equitably, I think being an independent is the best way to do that.”

• George Flaggs, mayor of Vicksburg and former Democratic state representative. Flaggs, who is close with Reeves and served on his 2019 campaign finance committee, told Mississippi Today last year he was praying about running for governor in 2023. Flaggs, who is Black, said this of a possible 2023 bid: “People are looking for people that represent people. I believe (changing the constitution) creates an opportunity to where an independent candidate — particularly an African American candidate — can be elected at the statewide level.”

• Robyn Tannehill, mayor of Oxford and newly-declared independent. Tannehill, who has gotten plenty of statewide press during the pandemic, has developed a close relationship with Gunn and other statewide political brokers. Here’s what she said when she announced she would run for reelection as Oxford mayor as an independent: “I believe with all of my heart that at the local level we need to be as bipartisan as possible to be able to achieve our greatest potential. I’m not representing the Republican Party or the Democratic Party as mayor. I’m representing Oxford, Mississippi.”

Mississippi Today spoke with several political data analysts who have worked dozens of election cycles for both Republicans and Democrats. No analyst could definitively say who would win in a hypothetical three-way race between Republican nominee Tate Reeves, Democratic nominee Brandon Presley, and a strong independent candidate.

Without exception, though, the analysts all predicted no candidate would garner 50% of the vote on Election Day. As for guesses on who the top two vote-getters would be, no one could confidently predict that Reeves would even land in the top two.

The lowest percentage any modern Democrat has pulled in a governor’s race was Robert Gray in 2015, who garnered 33% despite no political experience and virtually no name ID. Presley, theoretically, would earn at least that 33% floor and could lead the field of three candidates on Election Day.

That leaves 67% of the remaining vote for Reeves, whose unfavorability in recent polls has been in the mid-30s. It’s difficult to envision that a decent independent candidate wouldn’t pull at least 17% of the remaining vote from the incumbent governor. Waller, if he performed similarly to 2019, would earn closer to half of that remaining vote, putting both Reeves and Waller in the high 20s or low 30s.

Even if Reeves ran first or second on Election Day, a runoff with the other top vote-getter would be far from a guaranteed victory for the incumbent. The unsuccessful third candidate’s supporters would undoubtedly flock to Reeves’ opponent in a runoff.

Had Reeves had his way in 2020, this nightmare scenario would be a distant pipe dream for his political opponents.

Before voters decided in 2020 to get rid of the constitutional provision, Mississippi lawmakers first had to place the issue on the ballot. The issue was, of course, blessed by Gunn, the leader of the House, and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the leader of the Senate. 

But at the time, Reeves refused to endorse the idea, saying it was designed “to help elect Democrats” to statewide office.

The governor’s stance then was certainly outside the mainstream and clearly not shared by a vast majority of Mississippians. Now, as we clearly see how the constitutional change could affect Reeves’ political life, that stance is starting to make a lot more sense.

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Five new charter schools could open across the state as early as next year if the state approves their applications later this fall. 

On Monday, the Charter School Authorizer Board voted to advance the proposed schools, and voted against the remaining five that did not meet a majority of the required application criteria. 

This round of the process allowed all applications to be reviewed by an outside evaluator, which recommended only four of the ten proposed schools advance to the next round. Those schools are:

• Columbus Leadership Academy, grades K-8 in the Columbus Municipal School District
• Instant Impact Global Prep, grades K-8 in the Natchez Adams School District
• Resilience Academy of Teaching Excellence, grades K-5 in the East Tallahatchie School District
• Resilience Academy of Teaching Excellence, grades K-5 in the North Bolivar School District

The board also approved Clarksdale Collegiate Prep, which would serve grades 7-12 in the Clarksdale Municipal School District, despite the independent evaluator recommending against it due to issues with the plan that was submitted and concerns regarding test scores. The test scores referenced were from Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School, a currently operating charter school serving students K-5. 

Board members pointed out that the lower test scores occurred during the pandemic, and said the applicant should be granted leniency due to the extenuating circumstances. The board ultimately voted 4-3 in favor of moving the school to the final step.

Final decisions on each school will be announced in September. 

Charter schools are free public schools that do not report to a school board like traditional public schools. Instead, they are governed by the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board, which oversees the application process to open a new charter school. They have more flexibility for teachers and administrators when it comes to student instruction, and are funded by local school districts based on enrollment. 

Charter schools can apply directly to the authorizer board if they’re planning to open in a D or F district. If an operator wants to open in an A, B, or C district, they need to get approval from the local school board. All proposed schools being reviewed this cycle would be opening in D or F districts.

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A man has been indicted for the murder of former DeSoto County lawmaker Ashley Henley a year after she was shot and killed. 

Billy Lamar Brooks was indicted by a grand jury on June 30, according to court records. The indictment accuses him of killing Henley on or about June 14, 2021, which authorities said is the day after her body was found. 

He appeared in court July 7 and had his bond set at $250,000, according to court records. 

Henley, a Republican who represented House District 40, was shot and killed in Yalobusha County while mowing grass outside of the burned-out mobile home where her sister-in-law, Kristina Michelle Jones, was found dead in December 2020. 

Authorities said in 2021 the gunshot that killed Henley was “non-accidental.”

The Yalobusha Sheriff’s Department, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, District 17 District Attorney’s office and other agencies investigated the case as a homicide. 

Brooks, who lived across the road from Jones, was arrested and charged with arson in June 2021 for burning the trailer where Jones’ body was found. At the time, he was not charged with the death of Jones. 

He was indicted in February on a charge of maliciously setting fire to the home of Jones and Terry Henley, according to court records. 

Prior to her death, Henley had expressed frustration on social media about the investigation of her sister-in-law’s death. 

Henely represented District 40 from 2016 to 2020. She ran for a second term in November 2019 but lost by 14 votes. Henley challenged the election results and requested a new election, but that request was denied. 

Before becoming a legislator, she was a teacher. Henley is survived by her husband and a son.

The post Man indicted in killing of former lawmaker Ashley Henley appeared first on Mississippi Today.

From assassination attempts to protests in front of the houses of Supreme Court justices, there was a lot of emotion stemming from decisions made by the Court this term. But regardless of your take on a specific issue, the valuable – and correct interpretation – is that the Court removed power from the courts and federal bureaucrats and returned it to the states and the citizens.

We saw this in numerous decisions over the past year.

We saw the Court rule that the EPA can’t write laws Congress has long rejected, OSHA can’t mandate vaccines without Congressional approval, the CDC can’t play our national housing regulator, and abortion restrictions should be determined by the states.

CDC’s Covid-19 eviction moratorium

In Alabama Association of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Services, the Supreme Court struck the CDC’s COVID-inspired eviction moratorium as it was not authorized by the Public Health Service Act of 1944. The Court ruled the CDC lacks that level of authority to regulate the rental of apartments nationwide. “If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it,” the Justices wrote.

Private employer vaccine mandate

In National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Supreme Court took down the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) vaccine mandate. The ruling decision swept all vaccine mandates for most industries in workplaces above 100 employees. The Court explained that the agency lacked the authority to impose the mandate, “Permitting OSHA to regulate the hazards of daily life — simply because most Americans have jobs and face those same risks while on the clock — would significantly expand OSHA’s regulatory authority without clear congressional authorization.”

EPA’s Clean Power Plan rule

And in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, the Supreme Court ruled that a federal agency cannot unilaterally mandate that existing coal-fired and natural gas-fired power plants produce less electricity or convert to green energy sources. While the regulatory power of agencies is still in question, the Court said that the Clean Power Plan rule, which the Obama administration originally instituted, was such a significant policy that the agency needed clear authority from Congress before moving forward.

Abortion regulations returned to the states

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the majority of the Court upheld that abortion was not a constitutional right and that individual states have the right to regulate access to services for abortion. This stemmed from a 2018 Mississippi law that banned abortion operations after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

In each of these cases, there was large, vocal opposition. But the Supreme Court should not be influenced by outside noise. Moreover, they never said these ideas are dead, just that you must do it correctly. If you want to prohibit evictions, you can do it, but it needs to be authorized by Congress. Same with vaccine mandates or green energy proposals. With Dobbs, states can determine regulations around abortions while previously being told by courts they couldn’t.

In reality, the Court didn’t “do a lot,” in the sense that they didn’t write laws from the bench. They were simply a check on government power that was far removed from voters. But the voters, via their elected representatives, have the power to shape any of these policies. Politicians who liked these rules or policies may complain, but that is the right direction. And that is what people should be paying attention to.

Never in a million years did Wesley Jackson think that he could move from being a drug addict to running a men’s recovery center in the same community he once harmed. 

Wesley’s story began in Tennessee with a good family and a normal childhood. He found himself falling in with the wrong crowd and struggling to find his identity. He turned to drug use in high school and it progressed through college as he began using heavily and moved to selling opioids. 

At age 23, he was charged with possession of cocaine which was his first interaction with the criminal justice system. From there, his addiction began to spiral and he moved through the justice system. Wesley was in and out of incarceration and navigating the tangled web of parole.

“I learned how to do just enough to work the system and get by, but then I’d be back at it using drugs. It snowballed quickly,” Wesley said. 

When the opioids weren’t enough, Wesley found himself looking for other drugs. That’s when he began experimenting with methamphetamine.

“Addiction has a lot of different looks and it runs every part of your life,” he continued, “you are led around by this drug and it becomes physically debilitating.”

Beyond the physical dependence, there is a mental battle that makes it even harder to stop. Wesley described meth addiction as feeling “numb, useless, and not worth saving”. 

“I didn’t care about anyone, anything, or even myself,” he said.

Time after time when he would try to quit, the endless cycle dragged him back into the hopelessness. 

“It feels like you are always setting boundaries for yourself just to break them again,” he said. “I was trying to get things right, but I always found myself back in the ditch.

After the birth of his second son, his wife wrote him a letter, pleading with him to do something about the addiction. It was a line from that letter that shook him, “Do something for your sons to be better men.” It was then that he realized his biggest disappointment in life would be for his sons to turn out as he did. He needed outside help if he was going to overcome the addiction, and now he was ready.

“I had tried it my way every time but it just led to failure,” Wesley said, “I didn’t know what to do but I did the opposite of what I used to do.”

Wesley began searching for a recovery center where he could get the help he desperately needed. He found redemption at the Home of Grace, a faith-based addiction recovery center on the Mississippi Gulf Coast . This program was first introduced to Wesley by Tommy Wilson of Living Free Ministries, who would later meet Wesley in person at the recovery center. Wesley had never been to rehab before but seven days after arriving at the home, he gave his life to Christ. He completed the eight-week program and was beginning to see God’s hand at work in his life. 

“I as all in,” he said. “I had given my life to Christ and I was going to start saying ‘yes’ to whatever He wanted me to do.”

Recovery programs are essential because they give individuals hope, direction, and a  clear visualization of what life can look like on the other side of addiction. Many of those who struggle with addiction have their first interactions with the law at a young age, and recovery programs teach them how to be an adult living with the right purpose surrounded by support and encouragement. They offer the vital influences of connection, redirection, and grounding. 

“These small groups of people stand in the gap between you and addiction during the hard times of recovery,” said Wesley. 

After graduating from Home of Grace he went back to school and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Christian leadership from Union University in Jackson, TN. This was a complete turnaround from his former life, he went from failing college in his early 20s, to making the Dean’s list in his early 30s. He transitioned out of a long-suffering identity struggle to finding identity and purpose in Jesus Christ. 

After college, Wesley reconnected with Tommy Wilson and, together, they founded The Freedom Center – a 10-week, faith-based men’s rehabilitation center in Corinth. He works as a program director at the center alongside Tommy who is the executive director. Since the inception of the program in December of 2021, they have graduated nine men, many of whom are now giving back to their communities. 

Today, Wesley’s family looks different than it did during the dark days of addiction. He and his wife Nikole are raising their two sons. They run a health clinic, Family Clinic at the Lake, where Nikole works as a nurse practitioner and Wesley is the financial advisor.

“Second chances are crucial,” Wesley noted. “They give hope in the middle of the lostness. In today’s world it’s easier to toss people aside, but there is hope. People do change. 

“Everybody deserves compassion.”

You can help provide second chances in Mississippi. Please sign the petition below.

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Mississippi celebrity chef Nick Wallace has become a literal household name thanks to his appearances on Food Network cooking shows “Chopped” and “Fire Masters,” both of which he won, and most recently as a finalist this spring on Bravo’s “Top Chef.”

But today, he’s sitting in his car outside a nondescript, 15,000-square-foot brick building in Midtown Jackson, reminiscing on the journey that led to his success — and specifically here, to the corner of Keener and Wightman streets, where he is building his next project. 

Wallace flips the camera on his phone away from selfie mode to reveal the facade of his business headquarters, Nick Wallace Culinary, then stands to walk around the weathered asphalt lot. 

“We’re going to have a farm that’s going to be here outside of the building,” Wallace says, motioning around the space. “We’re going to do farmer’s markets. It’s going to be little bays right here during the farmer’s market, twice a week.”

Wallace’s vision for the Midtown Culinary Center, his collaboration with Midtown Partners, Hope Credit Union and Millsaps College’s ELSEWORKS Entrepreneurial Program, is to showcase Mississippi cuisine while providing the local community with access to quality foods and workforce training. 

For Wallace, it’s also an opportunity to begin correcting outsiders’ impressions of Mississippi cuisine, and particularly African-American cooking. Through his television experiences, he’s heard people say, “We can only fry chicken and make comeback sauce and fry catfish and braise greens and cornbread,” Wallace laments. “Yeah, I can do all that, but I can do a whole lot of other things, too. That right there is a fuel element.”

Before farm-to-table was a trend, it was simply how Wallace and his family lived in Edwards, Mississippi, in a home built in the center of a seven-acre farm. The family business was pulpwood, but for Wallace, the real business happened right there on the homestead.

“As soon as you walked out, you might be stepping on sweet potatoes,” he remembers. “To the left was the chicken coop. Over the fence were the cows. We had a lot of wild mushrooms on the property, wild berries, figs — everything that you wanted.”

For young Wallace, the farm was practically his entire world. With older family members away most days, tending the crops often fell to him. He gathered greens from the gardens and collected eggs from the chicken coop. He helped his grandmother with pickling cucumbers and peppers and canning jams and jellies. He ate her sweet potato butter on biscuits in the morning and observed how she used everything they grew and raised. 

“My grandmother really practiced slow food. Everything about what she did took time,” he says. “She always had those big Dutch oven cast-iron pots and was always braising meats. She did a lot of braising vegetables, too. We used everything on the cow, everything on the pig. Every vegetation that we grew, I definitely ate it.”

In time, Wallace’s world both grew and shrank. When his mother moved him and his sister to Jackson when he was nine years old, the yard was no longer big enough to get lost in, leaving him feeling trapped in his new city. He would go back to the farm in Edwards on weekends but soon began picking up cleaning and inventory jobs at local pool halls and corner stores back in Jackson to keep himself busy. 

When he was 15, he began taking on roofing jobs, and then found his first restaurant job at Fernando’s, a Mexican restaurant in Ridgeland, but never made it past the prep line. In quick succession, he was hired as a cook at Outback Steakhouse and then graduated to Schimmel’s, where he worked under Derek Emerson, whose metro-area restaurants now include Caet, Local 463 and Walker’s Drive-In. At that point, though, cooking was still a paycheck.

“I really didn’t take it seriously until I started listening to people and finding out all these popular chefs and reading their stories,” he says. “And looking around and seeing nobody that looked like me. And I wanted a little bit more, so I tested the waters.”

Wallace pursued and landed the kitchen manager gig at the downtown Jackson Marriott when he was 20 years old, and within two years was named executive chef.

“Marriott taught me how to show up on time, how to dress, how to do some public speaking, the financial reports, all that,” he says. “I realized at that point that if I wanted to really take my craft to the next level financially, my brand, everything else, I really had to write my story.”

As executive chef at the Hilton Garden Inn in the King Edward building, he began to do just that. He planted a garden at the valet station, then added raised beds behind the hotel where he grew tomatoes and herbs. He created a chef’s table where Hilton executives and VIPs could experience Wallace’s five- and six-course meals. After six years there, and with the lessons he learned from his grandmother swimming in his head, he landed his first TV appearance in 2013. For “Top Chef,” his eighth TV show, the producers came to him. 

“Honestly, I didn’t do a whole lot of research about ‘Top Chef’ before I went on because I work every day,” he says. “I worked the same day I flew out. I just got on the show and tried to figure things out.”

By then, Wallace was a year into running his first signature spot, the Nissan Café By Nick Wallace at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, where he puts his experience to work in popular dishes like a Southern-style ramen noodle bowl, a smoked brisket wrap and white chocolate bread pudding. He still uses the Dutch oven his grandmother used to braise meats and vegetables when he was a kid.

While his passion remains strong for the café, his latest round on reality TV kept him — and Mississippi, as he interjected at every opportunity — visible to a national audience for three months. More doors began opening, like a new partnership with Ben’s Original Rice (formerly Uncle Ben’s) and Dole Foods’ Sunshine For All initiative. He balances the workload with community projects like the Midtown Culinary Center, quoting his grandmother: “As much as you get in life, you give back just as much.”

“I appreciate the fame and all, but that’s not really what I want,” he says. “I’m working on my nonprofit culinary center in Midtown Jackson. I want to see that through because that’s going to be around for many, many years to come. I want to try to get involved with other things that identify the sophistication of food for Mississippi. And so I don’t think the work is done.”

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