By Chuck Martin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Don't even talk to Gail Billings and Carolyn Wallace about sweet potato pie. They don't make it. It's not that they can't, they just won't.

Cincinnati caterers Gail Billings, front, and Carolyn Wallace have been eating sweet potatoes in some form all of their lives. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

Oh, these Cincinnati natives know sweet potatoes, for sure. They smile and close their eyes with pleasure thinking about baked sweet potatoes split down the middle, oozing melted butter.

Ms. Billings remembers eating sticky candied "yams" at Thanksgiving. Ms. Wallace's father used to make special family breakfasts of country ham, eggs, biscuits and sliced sweet potatoes sizzled in ham fat. Nothing like it.

Both women have eaten their share of sweet potato pie, too. A good pie should have a firm filling seasoned just right, they agree. Ms. Billings has heard that a pie recipe with sweetened condensed milk works really well. But she claims she's never tried it.

The women refuse to make sweet potato pie - at least for public consumption - because, frankly, they're afraid.

"I don't want people talking about my pie, comparing it to someone else's,'' says Ms. Wallace, who owns the Perfect Brew Catering Co. and works out of Ms. Billings' kitchen at Edibles 'n Such in Mount Adams. "I'm still looking for a good sweet potato pie recipe,'' adds Ms. Billings, sounding as if she knows that may be an unending search.

THE CHALLENGE

Gail Billings and Carolyn Wallace admit they're intimidated by sweet potato pie. So will you accept the challenge? If you're proud of your sweet potato pie, send us a recipe before 5 p.m. Friday. (Amateur cooks only, please.) We'll select several recipes, make the pies and let Ms. Billings and Ms. Wallace choose the best. The winner will receive a sampling of holiday cookbooks, and we'll publish the recipe next Wednesday in Food. Send recipes to: Sweet Potato Pie, the Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax: 768-8330; E-mail: cmartin@enquirer.com.

The women know many people remember - or at least think they remember - how their mother's or grandmother's sweet potato pie tasted. And they realize that no matter how spicy, sweet and rich their pie turns out, it will never compare to those memories of the best pie. So why try?

This does not mean these friends and cooking companions have given up on sweet potatoes. Ms. Billings makes her own sweet potato casserole, rich with butter and cream, topped with brown sugar and pecans. It's nothing like that too-common, too sweet casserole topped with melted miniature marshmallows.

Ms. Billings calls her casserole a side dish - something to pair with turkey, ham and vegetables - but you could certainly save it for dessert. In a pinch, it could even replace pie.

Ms. Wallace's specialty is a beautiful silky orange soup, made with pureed and chunked sweet potatoes, shiitake mushrooms and fresh rosemary. She created the soup two years ago to feed a friend who was fighting stomach cancer. Ms. Wallace is making no claims, but that friend is now cancer-free.

"It's full of healing ingredients,'' she says.

The always-smiling Ms. Wallace, who left her job as manager of Swifton Commons mall in September to cater full-time, often substitutes sweet potatoes for "white'' potatoes in other recipes - for color, nutrition and flavor. A big believer in sweet potatoes, she just doesn't dare to cross the pie line.

She and Ms. Billings have eaten all kinds of sweet potato foods over the years - pancakes, muffins and more. All of it was pretty good, they allow.

"Well, except for maybe a pie or two,'' Ms. Billings says.

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