2016-04-05--sinfully southern
Baker and pastry chef Dwayne Ingraham exudes a medley of excitement and nervousness as he walks into my office to discuss the details of his newest venture. Still fresh off his successful stints on Food Network – a satisfying victory on Cutthroat Kitchen and a near-win on last year’s Spring Baking Championship – he is not one to rest on his laurels. Ingraham has decided to make his longtime dream of owning his own bakery and café a reality.
Expected to open this summer, Sinfully Southern will reside in a new construction at 3000 Old Taylor Road, just past the Mark Condominiums. The planned complex, called Village Station, will feature contemporary architecture full of green space, and is slated to host a variety of retail and dining options. Sinfully Southern will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as provide a bakery case stocked full of Ingraham’s famous creations.
“Sinfully Southern is a bakery and a café,” says Ingraham. “The heart and soul will always be about the desserts because that’s what I do, that’s my passion.”
Expect the breakfast menu to include such delights as crepes, French toast, and a Southern breakfast plate featuring the buttermilk biscuits that won Ingraham his third challenge in a row on Spring Baking Championship. For lunch and dinner, the café will offer a variety of sandwiches and Southern staples that Ingraham grew up eating, like Red Beans and Rice and Smothered Chicken. All of the sandwich bread and burger buns will be made in-house, of course, and will feature brioche and molasses wheat, among others. Additionally, the bakery will take special orders for bakery items such as birthday cakes, wedding cakes, dessert bars, and pastries.
Ingraham has cooked up another big surprise as well that is sure to be a hit. “We’re also going to be doing a pie club, which is something I’m really excited about,” he says. “We’re going to offer three- six- and twelve-month subscriptions. So, each month you can pick up your pie – and we will have a few to choose from.” A Pie of the Month Club? Genious.
All of the recipes will be Ingraham’s, either family recipes or items that he has been working on for the menu. The feel of it, he says, is “to bring Scarlett O’Hara into the twenty-first century.” With his Cajun roots and flair for Southern elegance, expect the menu to be classically indulgent.
“There’s real butter, cream cheese, eggs, whole milk. Desserts are not a necessary thing. We can go our entire lives without having it,” says Ingraham. “What I love about dessert is that people have it because they’re celebrating, it’s a joyous occasion, or they’re trying to lift up the spirits of someone. It’s such an indulgent time and that’s what I want you to feel whenever you come in to eat. I want to bring back those memories of good times and having good things just because you deserve it.”
Ingraham grew up in a small town called Boothville, Louisiana, about sixty-five miles southeast of the West Bank of New Orleans. After spending six years in Hattiesburg, he decided to enroll in the baking and pastry program at The New England Culinary Institute. Two internships took him to Sarasota, Florida, and Las Vegas, where he honed his craft and began to dream big. Landing the position of Pastry Chef for the City Grocery Restaurant Group in 2010 brought him to “God’s Country” to work for Oxford’s most prominent chef, John Currence.
Ingraham now calls Water Valley home, and seems content to stay in “The Velvet Ditch.”
“I decided to stay in Oxford because, for the most part, I’ve made my name here,” he says. “This town embraced me and took me in, unknown, and they have supported our program at City Grocery group though me growing and learning. So now maybe I can give back to the community.”
Sinfully Southern promises to mirror Ingraham’s quirky personality. “I like to consider myself very much a Southern Gentleman,” he says. “But I definitely have a little naughty side. There’s a little snide grin that comes out every now and then. I like to indulge, I like to have a good time, but at the same time I like to try to stay as close to my southern roots as possible.”
Diners will find out this August when the doors open to what will become a new notch in Oxford’s culinary belt. 
