Cheryl Day: Paying homage to her ancestral Southern ovens

Pastry chef Cheryl Day grew up in Los Angeles but spent summers with her grandmother in the South. She recalls baking, stopping at roadstands to pick up ingredients for the perfect pie, and coming back home with mason jars. Day was left with her mother’s journal full of letters, recipes, and family history, including the story of her enslaved great great grandmother, who worked for a local politician and was remembered for her biscuits.

There is a history of resourcefulness in Southern baking where rosewater, sorghum, cornmeal, and cane syrup are used for flavoring and never left for waste. Day, who started as a home baker before opening Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Georgia, was fascinated by the ingenuity of Southern bakers. Her latest cookbook is “Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking.”