Making Minny’s Chocolate Pie in Mississippi

If you’ve seen the movie The Help you know all about Minny’s Chocolate Pie, and its secret ingredient. So it was a bit disconcerting to discover we were going to be shown how to make the pie at the Viking Cooking School in Greenwood, Mississippi.

The movie was largely made in Greenwood, standing in for Jackson where the book was set. Earlier in the day we’d driven across the Tallahatchie Bridge – yes, the one from Ode to Billie Joe – and first saw Hilly’s front yard. You know, the one that gets covered in toilets. The inside of Hilly’s house is elsewhere in town, about 2 miles (3.2 kms) away.

Not far from that is Skeeter’s house, whose owners are used to tourists coming by. A big sign at the entrance to the driveway says “Help Ur Self. Tours OK”. Now that’s southern hospitality.

Food – and not just Minny’s Chocolate Pie – also plays a big part in The Help, and at the Viking Cooking School in the center of Greenwood one of several classes they do is on cooking recipes from The Help. Other cookery courses include Date Night and a Delta Dinner and Blues evening.

‘The Help has been our most popular class for seven years now,’ says chef Loren Leflore in her lovely and sassy deep south accent, ‘and it still sells out months in advance.’

Before we know it, wine is being poured in generous quantities, and we look down tonight’s menu with Loren. Southern fried chicken tops the list, of course, with other southern favourites like slow-cooked southern greens, cornbread, biscuits, and sweet tea.

There are two versions of the class. One is hands-on, where students do the cooking, and the shorter one that we’re doing where Loren does the cooking, with occasional help from one or two students. Quite how she’s going to cook all those things I don’t know, but there’s clearly been a lot of pre-prepping going on beforehand.

Loren turns out to be an absolute star. She’s one of those likable people who can tell jokes, control a boisterous wine-drinking class, cook several dishes at the same time, and hand out advice, all without skipping a beat. Oh, and make it fresh when you know she must have done it a hundred times before.

As she gets ready to cook the greens, she takes some bacon from the freezer. ‘Always slightly freeze the bacon,’ she says. ‘It makes it easier to slice. Better to fry it sliced.’

Soon the room is filling with the smell of cooking bacon, and I’m glad I got a front-row seat. Next tip is for something as simple as slicing an onion.

‘The best way to slice an onion is from top to bottom, not from side to side. So we’re gonna get our onion and sautée it till it’s translucent. Then we add some garlic. Put in the greens, stir it as if you mean it, and we’re done, let it simmer.’

Then Loren starts making the biscuits: ‘These biscuits are little pillars of heaven.’

Later, taking the biscuits out of the oven, she tastes one, and says, ‘Oh, these biscuits! Y’all are gonna die!’

She was right. They were to die for. As was her fried chicken. I’ve never cared for mac ‘n’ cheese, and it’s hardly a fancy dish, but Loren’s was 5-star amazing. An appetizer of deviled eggs were the best I’ve ever tasted.

‘Oh y’all,’ she says, ‘look at our cornbread!’

After a plate of chicken, mac ‘n’ cheese, collard greens, bacon, biscuit, cornbread, and a pat of butter – and more wine – it was time for the star of the show: Minny’s Chocolate Pie.

‘So,’ says Loren with a twinkle in her eye, ‘which version of the pie are we gonna do for dessert?’

Cooking School Shop

After we finish the pie – and, OK, just one final glass of wine – we have time to visit the cooking school’s wonderful shop. Like all good cookery stores it’s full of handy gadgets that you never knew existed, and could have been invented just for you.

It’s also full of colourful pots and pans, measuring scoops, knives, aprons with funny slogans, and dozens of other things that raise a smile. I especially liked the huge wine glasses that had ‘Don’t ask, just pour’ etched onto them.

Instead of stocking up with stuff, as tempting as it is, I leave only with the memory of a wonderful night’s entertainment… and a new-found love for mac ‘n’ cheese.

More Information

See the website of the Viking Cooking School. I stayed at the excellent Alluvian Hotel, conveniently across the street from the school. You can tour the locations seen in The Help using a map from the Greenwood Convention and Visitors Bureau. For travel information about Mississippi generally, see the website of Visit Mississippi.

There’s also a Google Map showing the locations.