By Jim Beaugez
When the full heat of summer arrives, preparing and cooking hot meals is the furthest thing from Chef Enrika Williams’s mind.
“At home with my family, we have been eating lots of things that don’t require us to turn on the stove — anything that’s cooling or refreshing and quick if we are cooking,” says Williams, owner and chef at Fauna Foodworks in Jackson.
For her return to Catfish Row Museum’s Summer Chef Series this Saturday, July 26, at 2 p.m., Williams will prepare two of her personal favorite summertime dishes. Her presentation, dubbed “Bohemian Bites and Southern Roots,” will include tomato sandwiches made with heirloom tomatoes, freshly cracked black pepper, and a lemon aioli on toasted bread, as well as a variation on Shrimp Louie served atop pimento cheese on saltine crackers.
“They’re going to be really small bites with limited cooking, and we’ll do more pickling and use fresh veggies in their most natural state to bring out the best tastes,” she said.
Both dishes make use of in-season ingredients, such as tomato varieties sourced from local farmers’ markets and Gulf shrimp. Fresh tomatoes, prepared in a variety of ways, are centered in some of Williams’s fondest memories from childhood, and their aroma triggers a specific association for her.
“It’s a cross between soil and sunshine that I just associate with a really good tomato that always gives me such a reminder of summer and home,” she said. Her play on the classic tomato sandwich “twists it around a little bit where anyone can do it,” but without being tedious, she notes. “I just want everything to be easy and a way to relax and enjoy food.”
Williams cut her teeth in the kitchens of Atlanta, studying at the Art Institute while sharpening the instincts that would carry her far beyond the classroom. She was part of the opening crew at the InterContinental Buckhead, where high-end service met high-pressure precision, and later cooked under Richard Blais and Sean Brock in Charleston, two names that loom large in the Southern food world.
But a chef residency in La Crosse, Wisconsin brought her closer to the land. Surrounded by dairy farms and rows of organic produce, Williams developed a deeper respect for ingredients grown nearby and meals that begin in the soil and end at the table without losing their stories along the way.
When she returned to Mississippi, she built Fauna Foodworks, which has become her outlet for catering, creating communal dinners, and turning food into narrative by serving memories and meaning alongside her creations.
Ahead of her visit to Vicksburg, Williams will comb through the inventory at the farmers’ market in Jackson to find exceptional heirlooms with bold colors and flavors.
“Hopefully they have some different colors, but the biggest thing for me is just making sure that the tomatoes are local and that they just taste really good,” she said. “I want that fresh, sunshine flavor of a really good tomato to come through, so it’s really important that I get a local tomato for that.”
She’ll also share how her secret ingredient — spoiler: it’s fish sauce — helps balance the flavors in a fresh tomato sandwich. And she also has good news for any intrepid guests who might be intimidated to take on the project at home.
“You can’t mess up a tomato sandwich,” she said. “If it has time to get soggy, then that tomato sandwich has been around way too long. You’re not eating it fast enough, because normally they will go pretty quick.”
Taylor Bowen-Ricketts, owner and chef at Fan and Johnny’s in Greenwood, will cap the 2025 Summer Chef Series with “Southern Fresh: Tradition with a Twist” on Aug. 9.
