Atlanta sister and brother serve up family-inspired sweets
ATLANTA - Growing up in New Orleans, Channon “Chay” Powell literally was a kid in a candy store: “I can’t deny, it was pretty amazing!”
Powell’s father Robbie owned an actual candy shop in the Big Easy, called Sugar Dolls Candy Store — and his daughter spent as much time as possible shadowing him in the kitchen.
“It was like a little, mini-Willy Wonka,” she says. “We made everything from turtles, to truffles, to gourmet King Cakes and pies.”
Chay Powell ended up following her mother and brother to Metro Atlanta, and initially cooked up a corporate career. But when she was laid off in the early 2000s, the sweet smell of success led her straight back to the kitchen. Powell started baking New Orleans-style treats — many of them from her father’s recipes — and the response was so strong that she created Chay J’s New Orleans Candies, a food truck which she sets up at food truck festivals and from which she caters local events. The “J” in the company’s name comes from her younger brother Jason, her partner-in-sweets.
“When they take the sample, I’m looking for that eye pop,” Jason Powell says about giving customers a taste of his childhood. “That is the ultimate for me, because nobody really knows who we are until they try our stuff.”
And while the “eye pop” might be rewarding both sister and brother say the real icing on the cake is honoring their father, who passed away from cancer just a year after Hurricane Katrina ravaged their hometown.
“I feel pretty powerful about that,” Jason says, “because my dad was a hero of mine, and my sister. And a hero like him, you want that legacy to keep going.”
“He enjoyed what he did and, in turn, we enjoy what we do,” says Chay.
For more information on Chay J’s New Orleans Candies, click here.