Chef Sonya Yelder gives tribute to her late loved ones through her cooking. She remembers her brother, her mom, and her grandma through the food she makes.
Yelder, owner of Souper Sweet Shop in Springfield, is one of five kids. She was the only one interested in cooking. Her path to cooking was further brought to life because she spent a lot of time with her grandma due to her parents always working. She said her grandma's food? made her fall in love with cooking.
“I spent my summers with my grandmother who lived in the south and her daily routine was cooking things from scratch,” she said.
Yelder shared that she carries the legacy left by her mother and grandmother through growing and cooking foods all from scratch.
“Most people are closer to things that are grown and produced naturally, usually. So for me, I'm trying to do that in Souper Sweet every day. Like we make our soups from scratch. You know, our sandwiches we make from scratch. We roast our own Turkey, we roast our own chicken, we cook all those things made from scratch, so that, in terms of the legacy, my desserts are made from scratch. Even though the lemonade and tea you have today, we make that thing out. So for me, part of that legacy is just continuing on. What they are basically talking about is making stuff myself, right?,” she said.
She also gives tribute to her late loved ones by making sandwiches that represent what they liked. Such as the sandwich called the ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’ which represents her mother and grandmother and the sandwich “Jr’s Absolute Favorite” represents her brother.
The COVID-19 pandemic was hard, but Yelder kept relevant during that time by continuing to do what they always did. Since many restaurants were closed, people could just call the shop and place an order and then pick it up afterwards.
Yelder hopes to continue to grow and cook foods from scratch and give tribute to her loved ones. She’s all about community “I think for the size we are, we are very supportive of community places around us because of the size we are.”