By age 11 Melvin Jones was cooking on a six-burner wood stove in his Aunt Irene Coyle’s kitchen in Lowesville. His aunt and grandmothers guided the Amherst County youngster, passing on their recipes and teaching him that a good eye is essential to the craft.

Among the important lessons were “seasonings, I guess, textures, how food should look,” he said.

For 24 years he’s applied his homegrown talents in Sweet Briar College kitchens – the past dozen or so as the dining hall’s second in command. His aunt’s Southern fried chicken, collard greens and Jones’ own favorite, corn pudding – sweet and custardy, the way he likes it – are regular dishes at Prothro Hall.

So when the College planned “dinner and a movie” featuring the 1997 film “Soul Food” as part of its Black History Month celebration, SBC executive chef Dennis Paranzino turned to his sous chef for the mood-setting meal.

“Melvin is my main source for the menu, and we use his family recipes,” Paranzino said. “It’s not much different than [some dishes] we serve here already, but it will be made with smoked ham hocks and real butter, so it will have more authentic taste.”

Besides the chicken, which Jones seasons with a little Old Bay, the menu includes barbecue pork ribs, macaroni and cheese, collard greens in potlikker (the juice of the greens simmered for hours with meat for flavoring), spoon bread, pinto beans with ham hocks, fried green tomatoes, and his corn pudding garnished with a touch of nutmeg.

Jones grew up with his brother and two sisters in his aunt’s home, where extended family and friends gathered nearly every week after church at St. Mary’s Baptist. He said his experience is similar to that of the family in “Soul Food,” a movie he regards as a fair portrayal of the role of food and mealtimes in African-American culture.

Aside from the “togetherness of family,” he said, “food makes [people] more comfortable. Knowing you can get this particular food at this particular house. You have this grandmother who makes this better, and that grandmother who makes that better.”

That’s the soul component. The menu traditionally was a matter of economics.

Meat is a “must for soul-food cooking,” Jones said, noting that cooks used what was available. “Pork, you could basically eat everything on the hog. [They] grew their own greens or their own salt pork and what not. … They cooked them the way they wanted to, their particular style.”

He remembers it that way at his aunt’s house, where not too many years ago the family still grew vegetables in the garden and he helped carve the hog meat to put up in the freezer. Individual style also means that recipes are often ingredient guidelines without measures. “We just throw in a little of this, a little of that,” Jones said.

It seems to work. Nancy Herr, manager of Le Bistro on SBC’s campus and Jones’ colleague, says whatever he’s cooking, she adds “Melvin’s Marvelous” to the name of the dish, such as Melvin’s Marvelous Meatloaf. Jones shared some recipes from the evening’s menu, and even wrote down quantities to help those with a less practiced eye for measuring.

He was just 18 when he brought his culinary skills to Sweet Briar, inspired in part by his paternal grandmother, Mannie Jones of Nelson County. She is “serious” about cooking, he said, and in her 70s still insists on Sunday dinners at her house.

In fact, the banana pudding on the dessert menu is made from Mannie Jones’ recipe. There also will be sweet potato pie, fresh apple cake with caramel frosting, and shoofly pie – a gooey, molasses-and-brown sugar confection often attributed to the Pennsylvania Dutch.

Dinner begins at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8 in the Josey Dining Room in Prothro Hall. The cost for guests is $6.75 and $3.50 for ages 3 to 11. For those with a Sweet Briar ID the cost is $5.50 and $2.75 for ages 3 to 11.

For information on this and other Black History Month events at Sweet Briar, contact James McGhee, SBC student activities director, at jmcghee@sbc.edu or 381-6134.

– By Jennifer McManamay, SBC staff writer

Southern Fried Chicken
Frying-size chicken (8-piece count)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Salt or seasoning salt, to taste
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon black or red pepper
½ teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
1 tablespoon paprika

Wash chicken parts in cold water. Soak chicken in salt water. Drain water from chicken. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, garlic, pepper, paprika and Old Bay seasoning. Batter chicken in mixture, place on a sheet tray and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Heat cooking oil to 325 degrees or fry in cast-iron skillet over medium heat for 15 minutes.

Seasoned Collard Greens
4 pounds fresh collards, cut into ribbons
1 cup bacon, diced
½ cup onions, diced
Red pepper flakes, pinch or to taste
Salt, pinch or to taste
Sugar, pinch or to taste
Black pepper, pinch or to taste

Cut greens into ribbons. Wash thoroughly in water two times. Saute diced bacon in skillet until it begins to brown, add onions and saute lightly. Place greens in large pot or stock pot. Cover with water, add bacon, onions and seasonings. Boil on medium heat for about three hours or until desired tenderness. Additional water may need to be added during cooking.

Corn Pudding
1 medium can cream-style corn
1 medium can whole-kernel corn, drained well
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, beaten
½ cup butter, melted
2 cups heavy cream or half-and-half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Nutmeg
½ cup flour

Add cream-style and whole-kernel corn to large bowl. Sift together flour and sugar, set aside. Add eggs, cream, vanilla and flour mixture. Mix well, slowly added melted butter while mixing. Pour into baking dish (Pyrex or casserole) and sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake at 300 degrees for one hour, 15 minutes.