Chef Nick Seabergh hails from a background as rich and complex as the gumbo he creates in the kitchen of Giardina’s, the historic Delta Italian restaurant in Greenwood, MS.

A native of Vicksburg, MS, Nick learned to cook at the apron strings of his grandmother, Inez Hogue, whose kitchen produced a smorgasbord of flavorful dishes that reflected her family’s Italian and German heritage sifted through the culinary traditions of her New Orleans and Mississippi Gulf Coast upbringing.

He began reading about cooking at the age of 8 when he was given a copy of Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen, which was, and still is, a major influence in his culinary development.

After several generations of nothing but girls in the family, Nick, as the only boy, was the beneficiary of his grandmother’s time and attention. Grandmother and grandson spent weekends in the kitchen, going to Mass on Saturday evenings, so the results of their labor would be ready for the table when Nick’s family got out of church on Sundays.

After graduating from St. Aloysius High School in Vicksburg, he pursued his culinary education beginning with Delgado College in New Orleans and ending with the highly touted culinary bachelors degree program at MUW in Columbus, MS. Along the way, he also picked up a BA in History from University of Mississippi with a concentration in archaeology and worked as an archaeologist.

His years at MUW honed his skills and sharpened his desire to work in the culinary profession. Under the influence of Dr. Jim “Doc” Fitzgerald he expanded his culinary world view and gathered inspiration from Doc’s tutelage. As Seabergh puts it, “Doc Fitzerald made me want to be good.”

While at MUW, Nick was part of a 5 member team that entered the first national Student Culinology Competition, beating out such prestigious culinary schools as Cornell to win second place. His first restaurant job in Columbus taught him speed, discipline, and management skills. He had a first hand opportunity to learn how a well-run restaurant operates.

Seabergh landed in the kitchen of Giardina’s when he and his wife, Mary Neff Newsome Seabergh, decided to move closer to her Delta home of Greenville. He sees himself not only as a creative chef who brings his own culinary passion and ideas to the kitchen, but as a steward and keeper of the flame for the historic Giardina’s restaurant, founded in 1936 by the Giardina family. The Giardina’s immigrated from their native Sicily and owned and worked in the restaurant until 2003 when it was bought by Fred Carl, Jr. of Greenwood and Viking Range Corporation and relocated to The Alluvian Hotel, owned by Viking.

It is his hope that diners enjoy the timeless atmosphere of the restaurant and a sense of the food and the people who immigrated to the Delta in the 1930’s. “It’s ‘old school’,” Seabergh said, “like walking into Peter Lugar’s in New York. It evokes a certain nostalgia for the dining rooms and food of that era.”

Although he is becoming well known for his inspired specials, use of local ingredients and cured meats and sausages, Seabergh honors the tradition of the Delta steak house and pays homage to the Sicilian family traditions that are the hallmark of Delta dining.

“You have to respect the food for what it is - Mississippi Delta centric Italian American food,” he said. “You’re not going to go to Italy and see Veal Parmesan on the menu. When I think about our food, I visualize William Leflore, one of our cooks of Italian descent, sitting around the house on Sunday with his extended family eating this. I see him stirring his pasta gravy on the stove for five hours. The ingredients are simple and ordinary but the hours of stirring and cooking with purpose and respect for his family’s traditions make the food extraordinary.”

Seabergh hopes that diners take pleasure in the traditional menu with dishes that generations of Giardina’s diners have come to love while also embracing the new, more contemporary fare that populates the menu on weekends. With one foot planted firmly in the past and another in the future, Seabergh is the consummate steward of a Mississippi Delta dining tradition.