We have another installment from the new "Faith in Detroit" project led by Christ Church Cranbrook in partnership with Detroit PBS and others.

The initiative lifts up stories of faith and resilience.

Today, we hear from Cassandra Thomas, the owner and founder of Sweet Potato Sensations Bakery and Restaurant.

She sat down with "Faith in Detroit" director Father William Danaher to talk about her professional journey.

(bright uplifting music) - What a delight to be with Cassandra Thomas, who is the owner and founder of Sweet Potato Sensations.

I am so blessed and grateful to be with you.

I have been watching your website and eating your food and just falling in love with the story that you tell.

And I also think the vision that you've brought to having a place where a sweet potato forward restaurant could be in Detroit and be a place where people can get to know all the versatility and the beauty and the wonder of that cuisine connected to the sweet potato.

And I there was something you said when we had dinner the other night.

You talked about your discovery of the sweet potato as being something that you came to late.

When you moved from Ohio and came to Detroit, you came and your husband liked sweet potatoes.

You didn't cook much with them.

And so you decided to do some cookies for him that were sweet potato based and he loved them and everybody else loved them.

And from there you started your wonderful bakery and then restaurant.

And I found that beautiful because you, most people, when they talk about the role that food plays in love, begin with the food.

The food was delicious and then they learned to love the person who made it.

You came to love the food through love itself.

It was your love for your husband.

- Yes.

- And you came to love the sweet potato.

Can you say a little bit more about that?

That the connection between love and food, maybe memory and God?

- Wow, that's a deep question.

(chuckles) Well, my husband was fanatical about sweet potatoes because he loves candied sweet potatoes.

And I was not a fan of candied sweet potatoes.

My parents always just roasted the sweet potatoes in the oven and ate them that way.

And that's what I grew up seeing.

Not the candied sweet potatoes because I'm not a big fan of sugary foods.

Sugar should be in a dessert, not a main entree, which was different for me.

I know a lot of people like, they go to restaurants, they eat coconut shrimp.

I mean, coconut shrimp looks beautiful, but just the sugar on the shrimp, I think coconut should be on a cake, not on my shrimp.

So it was kind of the same thing with my husband and these candied yams that he would say, but they're technically really candied sweet potatoes.

And he's reminded me constantly that his mother always made candied sweet potatoes.

And he could not understand why I was not making these for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.

And kind of under my breath I was, because I don't like them.

(Cassandra laughs) In order to keep the peace and because of love, I decided, well, you know what?

I'm going to make you a sweet potato cookie.

And I just said it just off the top of my head because I'm a cookie monster at heart.

I love cookies.

So I actually came up with a recipe for sweet potato cookies.

So when I made them, he's like, "Wow, these are, these are good," you know?

So we would make them for our family and friends when they would come up to visit us here in Detroit.

And people quite naturally would ask me, "Uh, well, can you send me the recipe?"

I said, "Oh, sure.

I'll send it to you."

Just never did, you know.

Wasn't that I was being mean-spirited or anything.

I just never though to send him the recipe.

So during the time when Famous Amos and Mrs.

Fields and all the cookie companies were the hot thing in the malls, you could go and get fresh baked cookies.

We decided, well, maybe our cookie might be marketable.

So we set up a table at a garage sale in a neighborhood and we had 125 bags of cookies.

We had surveys because we said nobody else may like these cookies other than ourselves.

And we found out from the garage sale that they liked the cookies.

And in less than three hours, all 125 bags were gone.

So we said, "Well, maybe we should start a business."

(Cassandra laughs) So that night, my husband, we went to sleep and he wakes up the next morning, "I got it, wifey.

Sweet Potato Sensations, the greatest taste in the nation."

And that's how it started.

- So that movement into entrepreneurship, it came out of this moment in which you realized that there was this larger community that wanted to have the products that you were able to develop.

But no one starts a business without a moment, I think, of not just inspiration, but faith and hope and love.

Particularly the kind of business that you run.

I was really interested to see that you featured Nikki's Teas, which is a cottage industry that went into larger supermarkets in the area.

Whole Foods carries Nikki's Teas.

- Yes.

- It started in the basement of a church in Detroit.

- Yes, it did.

- And for me the fact that you see that as your vision as an entrepreneur and as a restaurateur as a baker.

Can you say more about that vision and maybe connect it to your faith journey?

- The faith part of it has to do with, I had a pastor and his wife come to my shop one day when I had my first retail location.

And they gave me a scripture, "Do not despise small beginnings."

And when I think about it, you know, like a seed is very tiny and you put it in the ground and the roots grow and become the firm foundation for the seed and finally the seed will sprout.

So I wasn't really sure about this being a business.

It just kind of evolved.

And through faith in the Lord and trusting him, it was a journey really because I wasn't sure of myself.

And a lot of times when I would feel unsure I remember, on this one occasion, I was sitting back in my office.

I was in the shop alone.

This is when we had a smaller location across the street from where we are now.

And it was like a fall day, I want to say maybe October.

And a customer comes in and she comes to the counter and she takes off her gloves.

And she says, "I would like to buy a pie."

I said, "Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Can anything else I can do for you?"

She says, "I'll have a cheesecake and maybe some cookies," So I'm like, "Oh, okay.

Thank you."

So when I got finished with the transaction, "So anything else I can help you with?"

"No, I just want you to know that Jesus loves you."

I was blown away when she told me that.

I said, "Well, thank you."

(chuckles) So I've had experiences like this all throughout my time with Sweet Potato Sensations where I'm in the back having a pity party.

You know, I've had people tell me that I was wasting my college education.

My parents wasted their money sending me to school.

That when was I going to get a real job?

Oh, that's so cute you're baking cookies.

Very cynical, and when they're saying it, like it's just not a real thing.

So many times I would just doubt myself.

Like, okay, maybe I do need to get a real job.

I need to go out and apply to be a teacher or some, whatever it might be.

And every single time I would feel negative thoughts or doubts about things, the Lord would send someone.

That particular day, it was an individual.

I've gotten phone calls just out of the blue, an elder.

"Child, I just want to tell you, those are the best sweet potato pies I have eaten.

And I just want to tell you, don't you quit.

You just hang in there and keep on baking those pies.

If I was a little younger, I'd do the same thing myself."

I'm like, "Well, thank you, ma'am."

(laughs) So these situations would come up like that and I'd be like, "Okay, God, I'm not gonna quit.

I'm going to keep going, you know, even though I don't feel like I should."

But those are the kind of things that would happen every time I had those thoughts of quitting.

So I had to keep going.

And I did.

- Sweet potato is such a powerful dish, such a powerful supply to the food of the African American community.

- Yes.

- Is it true to say maybe that keeping that tradition going is a way of preserving community identity and memory and purpose in the face of often opposition.

Is that fair to say?

- I would think so.

There's certain dishes that are akin to our community, you know, collard greens and mac and cheese and candied sweet potatoes.

And the sweet potato pie, it's really interesting.

It's kind of a... Everybody has their own version of sweet potato pie.

And of course, I don't argue with any customers that, well, their mother made it this way.

My grandmother made it this way.

My nana made it this way.

However it was made, it is the best.

That's what I tell them.

Because it's almost like you get real personal about these sweet potato pies.

And they tell me that theirs is better.

I say, "Yes, it is."

I don't argue with them.

The Lord told me that, tell them theirs is the best because it is.

Because however your family did it, that's the best because that's what you grew up knowing and seeing.

So I said, when they don't feel like making it, then come see us and we'll make one for you.

So it kind of helps with that situation.

The sweet potato pie is one of the dishes that we take to heart in the African American community.