Cheesecake Fit for a President

Sweet potatoes are a staple in many southern homes and they find their way into recipes that never cease to surprise me. From sweet potato casserole and sweet potato pie to the popular sweet potato biscuits served during brunch at the Horseradish Grill, this tasty tuber is very versatile. But there is one Atlanta treat that does true justice to this spectacular spud: Sweet Auburn Bread Company's sweet potato cheesecake. The creation of Atlanta chef Sonya Jones, this sweet treat is known far and wide. In fact, President Bill Clinton even stopped by the market while in town one day to try it for himself. Let's just say he didn't let any go to waste.

Trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, Jones grew up in the restaurant business watching every move her mother made around the kitchen. She fell in love with baking. After graduating from the CIA she went on to share her culinary talents as a baking and pastry chef instructor at a local technical college. Soon she had opened her own bakery and was turning out pound cakes, buttermilk and lemon chess pies, even cakes made from towers of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. But it was in 1998 that her name would become synonymous with the famed sweet potato cheesecake. "I wanted to come up with something really southern and yet gourmet," she said of the smooth sweet pie resting atop a pound cake crust. The cheesecake has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers and even on the Food Network. Now her goods are available in 22 Starbucks coffee shops around Atlanta, 2 of which are owned by Magic Johnson.

Formerly housed in the Sweet Auburn Curb Market, her bakery is now located at 2457 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive SW, Suite J, in the same neighborhood where she grew up and learned to love baking as a young girl. She has reduced the retail hours to Fridays and Saturdays only, but special orders and pick up times are available by calling tel. 404/696-5676.