This article was published in the 2007 Winter Issue of Edible Atlanta Magazine.

It was a warm September afternoon and the sunlight pouring in through the windows of the Sweet Auburn Bread Company produced a heat specific to the Deep South. The executive chef and owner, Sonya Jones, sat me down at a tiny wooden table in the corner of her bakery and placed a miniature sweet potato cheesecake in front of me. She stood over me with her arms folded across her chest as I raised the first forkful to my mouth. When she saw the look on my face, she let out a warm, lighthearted laugh. I'm not sure if she understood the extent of my unadulterated bliss. All I know is that I wanted to drown myself in that delicate, smooth, creamy and undeniably Southern baked good.

Sonya Jones has owned that little bakery for 10 years, but she's been cooking Southern food her entire life, and it shows. Her mother owned a small Atlanta restaurant, called Cat's Corner, that served classic soul food dishes. “We had ox tails, sweetbreads and sweet potato pies. All the stuff everyone wants now,” she said. When she was young, she worked in the kitchen and learned recipes that her family has passed down for generations. That kind of education is priceless when your goal is to keep a food tradition alive.

A sign on the front door announces the bakery's modest intentions: “We're baking memories.” “I just love it when people come in here and tell me, ‘that looks like one of my grandmamma's pies,'” she said. “Food defines people. It gives people bragging rights when they talk about what foods they grew up with.”   That's why Jones focuses exclusively on deserts that characterize her cultural heritage.

One of Jones' favorite ingredients is the sweet potato, which shows up in her nationally renowned cheesecakes and her equally delicious sweet potato muffins. The fate of this tuber is inextricably linked to the history of African Americans, who appropriated it and turned it into something with which all Southerners now identify.

When slaves were brought to America, they had never seen sweet potatoes before, but they associated them with the True Yam, native to West Africa, because of their similar appearance. Even though these two plants are not related, newly arrived Africans used the word “nyami” a Senegalese word meaning both “True Yam” and “To Eat” to describe the unfamiliar vegetable.   Later, the extra letters were dropped and the word yam became synonymous with sweet potatoes in the United States despite their categorical differences.

Jones is an avid reader on the subject of culinary history. She loves to learn about where food comes from, but she also likes the challenge of adding her own twist on old recipes. “I want to make food that reminds people of home, but I also want to give them something new. Something they haven't had before. I like to make old favorites more elegant.”

Jones was awarded a scholarship to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, where she combined her intrinsic knowledge of Southern food with a formal culinary education. “When I decided I wanted to do this for a living, I knew I wanted to do it right. I wanted to be professional about it. I knew how to cook, but the education I got at CIA is what allows me to be creative.”

The sweet potato cheesecake is a perfect example of that creativity. She folds fresh sweet potatoes into a traditional cheesecake batter and mounts it on a pound cake crust. The result is a remarkably light and perfectly sweetened cake that appeals to both taste memory and the desire for something new.   Jones is constantly seeking out those new combinations, and she often lets seasonal produce inspire her. In the summer she makes peach muffins and Blackberry “Chess Pie,” a southern favorite that traditionally consists of a single crust filled with a batter of eggs, butter, sugar and vanilla. It is said that the name “Chess Pie” derives from a plantation cook whose simple response to the question, “what smells so good?” was “jus' pie.”

As the seasons change and winter sets in, Jones will begin making apple muffins and apple pies. When I asked her what she was planning on doing for the holidays, she quickly reeled off a handful of ideas: Gingerbread, Rum Balls, Pecan Pie with Bourbon, Layer Cakes. “People want the basics, but they also want something new. Everyone loves Pound Cake, but how about Chocolate Pound Cake with Chilies?” She laughed. “Are the holidays about baked goods or what?”

After Jones graduated from CIA, she taught culinary classes at Atlanta Technical College. It was there that she met Edna Lewis, another legendary Atlanta Chef. “Edna helped confirm a lot of things for me,” Jones said. They saw eye to eye on traditional southern cooking and the preservation of a culinary birthright.

When Jones decided it was time to open her own bakery, she knew there was only one place to do it. In a city where the past is often downplayed, ignored, torn down, and built over in favor of the new, Atlanta's Sweet Auburn District is an oasis of history and memory. The district, which is home to such cultural landmarks as the Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Royal Peacock, and the Atlanta Life Financial Group, is a living monument to African American achievement. Operating under the strict Jim Crow Laws that pervaded the South from the end of Reconstruction until the 1960s, the local African American citizens built a vibrant neighborhood with thriving businesses, theatres, and churches, which produced numerous leaders including John Wesley Dobbs, and Martin Luther King, Junior. Walking down Auburn Avenue today, one is confronted with the beautiful history of a people who flourished despite systematic discrimination. It is the perfect place for “baking memories.” It is also the perfect place for a woman committed to community.

Despite Sweet Auburn's illustrious past, it has fallen on hard times since the 1960s. In 1994, the Sweet Auburn District was declared an Empowerment Zone by the Clinton Administration's Federal Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, the goal of which was to revitalize blighted urban centers through community based strategic planning. Jones' demonstrated success as an entrepreneur (and her delicious confections) lured a sitting president, Bill Clinton, to come visit her and sample her goods.

That visit, and Clinton's rave reviews, won Jones a fair amount of acclaim. Since then, Jones' cakes have been featured in numerous articles and books. Her recipes have found their way into one of Rachael Ray's cookbooks and the Food Network's “Road Tasted” recently included her landmark bakery in of their episodes.

While Jones has continually been recognized as a master of her craft, producing quality foods that inspire Proustian reactions is not her only goal. She is also a tireless proponent of the art of baking. “I have people tell me all the time that they love to cook, but they don't like baking. Some people have had bad experiences and they don't want to try again.”   In order to help people get over their fears, she offers classes. In the past she's taught at The Cook's Warehouse and Whole Foods, but she has plans to begin inviting pupils into her own kitchen at the Sweet Auburn Bread Company. After all, what better way to pay homage to a tradition than by passing it on to others?

Jones believes there is more of a market for her style of cooking these days. “For me, it's just normal. We had good food growing up. But now it's a big deal.” Jones says she appreciates that people are paying attention to where their food comes from now. Over the past 10 years, she's noticed a shift in people's attitudes. “Kroger doesn't do what I'm doing, and people understand that.”

It's true you won't find Jones' baked goods at Kroger, but you can find them at various other stores around town. Atlantans will soon have the pleasure of sampling her deserts at Whole Foods Markets throughout the city. You can also find her son, Bobby Jones, peddling her sweets at the Buckhead Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings, but the true experience can only be had right there in her cozy downtown bakery.

Sonya Jones' baked goods can be purchased at:

Sweet Auburn Bread Company
234 Auburn Avenue, NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
(404) 221-1157
www.sweetauburnbread.com

Whole Foods Market:
To find a store near you, please visit:
www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/index.html

Buckhead Community Market
2744 Peachtree Road
Atlanta, GA 30305
Open Saturday mornings from 8 - Noon