Chad Melvin Nelson Jr. is the reigning champion of the Louisiana Food Prize.

Food Prize-winning chef cooks up success, makes a living doing what he loves

Periodically, 318 Forum’s Tony Taglavore takes a local person to lunch — someone who is well-known, successful and/or influential — and asks, “What’s Your Story?”

Growing up, he was as much a part of his grandmother’s kitchen as cookbooks and spices.

“My grandma had a little stool — a little sitting spot — in front of the stove, right beside the refrigerator. If nobody was sitting there, that was my little spot. I was sitting there just sitting and watching. Just sitting and watching.”

Sitting and watching her cook everything from paper-thin dumplings to fried chicken in a cast-iron skillet.

Taking in the smells and, more importantly, the recipes.

Same thing at his mom’s house. She was the family’s baker, turning out everything from smooth red velvet cake to a pineapple cake that would turn you upside down.

“I was a momma’s boy. I was always up under my momma. Up under my grandma ... I wasn’t trying to watch football with Pawpaw. I was up under Granny trying to see what she was cooking.”

One July day, the 10-year-old decided to go out on his own — kind of. Under momma’s watchful eye, he baked his first cake: A 7Up cake — his mom’s signature cake. She helped him gather all the ingredients, but he did the mixing. He did the pouring. He put the cake in the oven. He took out the cake when he thought it was done.

But the only opinion that mattered was that of his stepfather. The man the boy had looked up to, respected and admired since his parents split five years earlier.

“He was the first person to try it. He stamped his approval on it. He said, ‘Yeah, Bud. That’s it. It’s almost as good as your mom’s.’”

Words of affirmation. Words the boy still remembers.

These are the last words he ever heard from his stepfather.

On the way back home after working an overnight shift at the chemical plant, “He fell asleep on the back of a motorcycle and ran into a log truck.”

Chef Melvin Nelson Jr., 33 years old and the reigning champion of the Louisiana Food Prize competition, told me that heart-breaking story, and his story, during lunch at a place Melvin chose: Abby Singer’s Bistro. Melvin had oxtail, while I warmed up with a bowl of chicken and sausage gumbo.

“I don’t think I critique,” Melvin said when asked if he eats other people’s cooking with a critical palate. “My wife would say something different. Honestly, I just like to eat. I like to be fed. As long as it’s good food, a lot of times I don’t have much to say. ... If it’s not good, I’m going to be nice, and whatever I say to my wife when we get in the car, that’s a whole different story.”

(For the record, Melvin thought the oxtail was “outstanding.”)

Looking back, it is no surprise that the boy who grew up off Shreveport’s Pines Road is now a culinary expert.

“My mom still has the paper I wrote in third grade. I said I was going to be a five-star chef in Miami. So, apparently, I’ve wanted to do food service for a long time.”

Melvin is a traveling executive chef within a 31-hospital system. He also owns a private catering business. Melvin makes a living doing what he loves — cooking — thanks to his mother’s insistence and sacrifice. The youngest of seven children in a blended family, he wanted to attend The Art Institute of Austin and earn a culinary arts degree. But after returning from a tour of the school and finding out its cost, enrollment didn’t seem feasible.

“When I came back, I was looking at the numbers. I thought, ‘This isn’t going to work out. Never mind.’ I had already applied to Louisiana Tech and got accepted. I said, ‘I will just use TOPS and go to school there.’ My mom was like, ‘No, this is what you want to do. We’re going to figure it out.’”

Wanda. A single mom. A church secretary. Somehow, she figured it out.

“She saw what she saw in me, and she knew, ‘I’m going to get my payback for this. This is my investment.’ She pushed me and encouraged me to do this. ... I am so thankful for the push she gave me.”

In two-and-a-half years, Melvin learned to cook dishes from all corners of the United States, Asia and South America.

“It was a global curriculum” that “really, really impacted my cooking style.”

As a chef, Melvin worked at various restaurants in Shreveport and Austin. He was a sous chef at a senior living facility in Dallas. Melvin was on track to be executive chef for an expanding company. His career was coming to a boil when the burner unexpectedly turned off.

Melvin’s grandpa died.

“Losing him really kind of messed with me.”

“He was a huge, huge factor in my life. ... After losing him, something just cracked in my psyche.”

Melvin came back home and checked himself into a hospital “to give myself a reset.”

“That month was really tough. ... I just shut down. Everything was broken, so I just shut down.”

But one of Melvin’s “church moms” knew he could cook and knew he needed a job. So, she recommended him to Providence House. That work may have saved his life. It definitely saved his career.

“Being able to give back using my gift really ignited that passion in me.”

Then, it was on to the Salvation Army as food services director. A kitchen is a kitchen. But instead of cooking for paying customers, Melvin was cooking for those in need.

“I was able to use my gifts to uplift people at a time when they didn’t have anything else but the clothes on their backs and whatever they came in with. I’m not the richest man — I can’t give you gold and silver and dollars, but I can feed you. I can make sure you feel good because you’re eating good. That’s the first step in trying to get them back on their feet.”

It wasn’t Melvin’s idea to enter last year’s Food Prize competition, which pitted 12 of our area’s best chefs against each other.

“’I’m not ready.’ In my mind, that’s what I kept saying. ‘I’m not ready.’”

But some of Melvin’s fellow chefs thought otherwise.

“You’re ready.

You won’t ever be ready if it’s up to you.”

So, Melvin went to work, creating food — while staying true to who he is — which wowed the judges. Multiple rounds. One winner. A $5,000 cash prize.

“When they called my name, it took a minute to register that they said my name.”

Knowing Melvin had many mouths to feed back at work, I decided to ask my final question. As always, what is it about his life that might be helpful to others?

“Go with the flow. Be like water.

Change is going to happen. Change. Be able to adapt. Roll with the punches and you will be OK. Sometimes it seems frustrating and scary, but change is good. It’s not always bad. It comes when you least expect it. It stays longer than you want it to sometimes. Embrace it.”

It’s not a bad recipe for a delicious life.