If you believe there’s more to food than just eating, pull up a chair. In Mississippi, food is an event—some might call it a sport! We celebrate food with festivals, fairs, families, and friends. Experience the authentic flavor of Mississippi’s recipes, restaurants, cooking schools, and gourmet specialties. Bring your friends and try some of everything Mississippi has on the menu. It’s so good you could forget your manners.

Gourmet and home grown.
There’s no doubt about it, eating and cooking "Southern" is one of the hottest things going in the culinary world. Connoisseurs everywhere love to come to Mississippi just to eat their way around the state. Favorites are fried catfish, hushpuppies, and all the trimmings, or a country dinner of crispy fried chicken, farm-fresh vegetables, and crusty cornbread. Then, there’s steaks and tamales, spicy boiled crawfish, shrimp or crab with comeback sauce. And that’s just the beginning. Once you get a taste of Mississippi food, you’re spoiled for life.

The food fun doesn’t end with eating. Come to the Delta and learn about the dynamic catfish industry. You can actually witness the process "from pond to plate" in Belzoni, the "Catfish Capital of the World." Or take another path and learn to cook like a real Mississippian at the highly acclaimed Viking Cooking School in Greenwood. There are excellent food and cooking stores, classes, events, and festivals all across the state for you to enjoy any time of the year.

From paper plates to porcelain, it’s all here.
All across Mississippi, you’ll find some of the best old-fashioned hamburgers and barbeque anywhere along with home cooking like biscuits with gravy and collard greens. If you’re looking for a fine dining in incredible and diverse restaurants in a concentrated area, the capital city and central Mississippi are where you need to be. Jackson is known for its wonderful chefs whose preparations range from the finest cuisine to honest down-home cooking.

A little fun on the side, please.
On the Gulf Coast, the cuisine adopts a definitive seafood twist, with restaurants and festivals serving some of the finest fresh fish, shrimp, and oyster dishes in the world. With the high-energy nightlife and extreme sport activities, you’re sure to work up quite an appetite, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast is the perfect place to sit back, enjoy being catered to, and savor the cuisine.

There’s no doubt food is more than food in Mississippi. It’s a passion, a way of life. And we like nothing more than to share that part of our culture with others who don’t mind trying something different (who else would think of frying a pickle?) Come and experience Mississippi at its best—all you need is your appetite.