What began as a cheesecake recipe created by a high schooler in small-town Mississippi is now a business that makes thousands of cheesecakes a month.
Cotton Blues top-secret cheesecakes recipe was first crafted by Shaun Davis at age 15.
Six years later, Davis, now an accredited pastry chef, teamed up with restaurant owner Chris Ortego. The duo began selling Davis’s cheesecakes to patrons of Cotton Blues restaurant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
The desserts were an immediate hit. Patrons began requesting whole cheesecakes to share with family and friends, and Davis and Ortego knew they had something special.
Many of Cotton Blues online reviews cite their cheesecake as “best ever” and “better than New York!” which prompted the cheesecake tagline, “Mississippi Made – New York Approved!”
Almost a year after they began selling cheesecakes at Cotton Blues, the owner of a local grocery store chain asked us to sell them in the frozen section of his stores. Because freezing the cheesecakes is part of the recipe, it was a perfect fit!
Soon after, Cotton Blues began distributing to more grocery stores, and the small company quickly outgrew their restaurant location.
Today, Cotton Blues Cheesecakes operates a 15,000 sq ft Cheesecake Kitchen in Waynesboro, Mississippi.
All the cheesecakes are handcraft in small batches, packaged with love, and shipped out to various grocery stores in the South, including Ramey’s, Rouses Markets, Greer’s, and many more.
