Nick Wallace, HOPE Member, Ambassador and Celebrity Chef

Nick Wallace appeared on the hit TV show “Top Chef: Houston” in the spring of 2022, but this celebrity chef is firmly rooted in Jackson, Mississippi. His community service ethic and enterprising spirit led him not only to a mortgage from HOPE – becoming the first member of his family to ever buy a home – but also the funds necessary to grow his expanding culinary empire.

Wallace is now a HOPE Brand Ambassador and uses his growing fame as a chef and business owner to spread the organization’s messages of access and aspiration. “I honestly never thought it could happen,” Wallace said of his home purchase in 2017. “My vision of banks in general was that things were just really hard” for Black residents of the South. Wallace’s grandfather had a philosophy that “we don’t get loans” and that Black people had to save enough money to pay for large purchases outright. “Once I got involved with HOPE, they nurtured me. They took me through it,” Wallace said, adding that the credit union made sure he could afford the mortgage payments and in so doing, changed his perspective about possibilities and potential.

Wallace grew up on a farm in Edwards, Mississippi, and learned cooking from his grandmothers, Queen Morris and Lennel Donald. He enrolled at Hinds Community College but left to pursue a culinary career with Marriott to refine his skills. Eventually, he was sent to work in Anchorage, a period in his life that he credits for setting him on a path to success as a caterer, restaurateur, and entertainer.

When he returned to Jackson, Wallace began catering, blending his farm origins with sophisticated French technique to create a uniquely modern Mississippi cuisine. During events hosted by HOPE, he developed a strong relationship with HOPE CEO Bill Bynum and the two spoke often about advancing economic mobility in the region. “Millions of people need this opportunity as well and I want them to be affected,” Wallace said. “I never thought that I would be in business with them and have my voice heard throughout the community.” He obtained another loan from HOPE to purchase a commercial van for his growing business.

As Wallace continued to expand his presence in Jackson, he developed a program with the city’s schools, Creativity Kitchen, to provide healthy, flavorful school meals that are aesthetically presented. He speaks to Jackson students about entrepreneurship and business opportunities, and has begun speaking in Clinton schools as well, leading the mayor to offer Wallace the opportunity to open a new restaurant in a redeveloped section of town. “Now I’m about to sit back down with HOPE” to obtain financing to open the restaurant, Wallace said, adding that this new venture exemplifies how giving to others comes back in unexpected ways.

His next step was the founding of The Nissan Café by Nick Wallace Culinary at the Two Mississippi Museums – the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. After catering the Museum’s opening for 3,000 people, Wallace was eventually asked to open the café. “Everything I was taught, all the love that I was given my whole life, I get to pay it forward to everybody who comes into this building.” At the café, Wallace employs culinary students from Hinds Community College, helping him close the circle of his unfinished time there. “Now I get to enlighten even more entrepreneurs and future business owners,” he said, adding that the students get to meet visitors from all over the world.

Wallace continues to spread the message of HOPE’s services that offer opportunities to those who do not believe they can buy a home for their family or open a thriving business. “HOPE is changing people’s lives: The way they lay their head at night, the way they do business, the way they drive to work,” Wallace said. “I want this message to be loud and clear. I want people to dream big and align themselves with people who want to change lives.”