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Dwayne Ingraham Shares How South Helped Him Win "Best Baker in America" (With Video)

Published

9 years ago

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When Oxford chef Dwayne Ingraham brought home the title of “Best Baker in America” earlier this month and won $25,000 in the Food Network show’s finale, no one was more surprised than he was.
When the winner was announced, Ingraham said he felt shocked.
“I knew that I did the best that I could do, and that I did what I wanted to make everything I wanted to accomplish in that last challenge happen. But I had some tough competitors around me.”
As the weeks went by and the competition progressed, Ingraham says he would get nervous when it was time to present his creations, especially after seeing what his competitors had prepared and noting their modern techniques.
But Ingraham, who previously owned a restaurant in Oxford, wanted to focus on his Southern flavors.
“My dishes are very much Southern-based,” he said. “They’re very much just cooking simple food and elevating it to a level of, hopefully, as close to perfection as it can [be] and really trying to calculate those memories of what we hold deep in the South.”
Focusing on flavor has helped Ingraham win multiple cooking competitions, including Sweetest Chef of the South and the Food Network’s hit show, Cutthroat Kitchen.
Ingraham graduated from The New England Culinary Institute, and his experience includes jobs at The Ritz Carlton in Sarasota, Florida, the MGM Grand, and the Wynn Las Vegas.
Back in 2010, he came to Oxford as the executive pastry chef for the City Grocery restaurant group. He managed the dessert program for City Grocery, Snack Bar, Boure, Main Event and Lamar Lounge.
After leaving City Grocery, he opened his own restaurant in Oxford, called Sinfully Southern Bakery and Cafe. Located on Old Taylor Road, the cafe served some of Ingraham’s specialties, like buttermilk biscuits and cakes. While running his restaurant, he realized he was spending more time flipping through paperwork than doing what he loves – baking. As a result, he closed Sinfully Southern earlier this year.
Nowadays, Ingraham can be found at The Graduate hotel in Oxford, where he directs the food and beverage department.
Cori Christian, who works at the Graduate, said having a baking champion managing the food service is a good selling point for the hotel.
“I think it’s awesome, and it gives the Graduate a great title,” Christian said.
With all of his success, Ingraham still remembers how he fell in love with cooking.
“My mother had us in the kitchen young,” he recalled. She didn’t like to wake up in the morning, and she was not doing nothing before she could watch her soaps starting at 9 a.m.”
The first meal he learned to make was scrambled eggs. Waking up with breakfast on his mind, he remembers combining the eggs with toast to create a sandwich.
But it wasn’t actually his mother who influenced his love for food.
“My mother cooked because she had to feed us. But going to my grandmother’s house and making pound cakes or biscuits with preserves, those are the things that definitely inspired me.”
In the future, Ingraham hopes to use his $25,000 cash prize to eat his way through Europe.
“Being a pastry chef, I’ve always wanted to go to France to have macaroons and fresh French bread from the people who created it all. I just want to eat as much of it as I can.”

Story contributed by Annie Mapp. Email her at aemapp@go.olemiss.edu.

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Arts & Entertainment

Gulf Coast Jam Gives Post Malone Fans a New 2026 Date to Circle

Published

4 months ago

on

May 6, 2026

By

Gulf Coast Jam in Panama City Beach, Fla. offers Post Malone fans in Oxford an opportunity to see him concert. | Photo courtesy of Gulf Coast Jam

Last week it was announced Grammy award-winning artist Post Malone cancelled the Oxford stop that was part of his Big Ass Stadium Tour Part 2.

That concert was going to be held inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, giving the iconic venue an interesting, temporary environment.

But fans of Post Malone will have a chance to see the artist without having to travel across the country.

Post Malone will be a headlining act at the 2026 Gulf Coast Jam Presented by Jim Beam in Panama City Beach. Malone will cap off the four-day music festival as main performer on Sunday, May 31.

The Country On The Coast™ festival lineup also includes headliners Keith Urban, Chris Stapleton, and Riley Green, who will be joined by more than 20 artists at Frank Brown Park in beautiful Panama City Beach May 28-31, 2026. Passes are currently available at www.GulfCoastJam.com. Payment plans are available for all pass levels.

Gulf Coast Jam Presented by Jim Beam drew sellout crowds of 30,000 for the past two years. Music Festival Wizard named Gulf Coast Jam Presented by Jim Beam the number one festival in their

Top 50 Most Popular Fests in the World 2024 – Voter’s Choice poll and their Best Beach Music Festivals This Summer in 2025.

Post Malone, born Austin Post, is one of the most commercially successful artists of the last decade, blending hip‑hop, pop, and country influences into a style that’s made him a fixture on radio and streaming charts. He’s known for hits like Circles, Rockstar, and Sunflower, and for a touring schedule that usually packs stadiums and arenas. His shows tend to draw a wide mix of fans, which is part of why the Oxford date had been circled on the calendar for months.

Gulf Coast Jam Presented by Jim Beam 2026 Lineup

Thursday, May 28

  • Keith Urban
  • Jessie Murph
  • Wyatt Flores
  • Cooper Alan
  • Walker Montgomery
  • Gannon Fremin & CCREV

Friday, May 29

  • Chris Stapleton
  • Marcus King
  • Jackson Dean
  • Brent Cobb
  • Cole Goodwin
  • Hueston

Saturday, May 30

  • Riley Green
  • Koe Wetzel
  • Ole 60
  • Josh Ross
  • Ashland Craft
  • Hannah McFarland

Sunday, May 31

  • Post Malone
  • Muscadine Bloodline
  • 49 Winchester
  • Elizabeth Nichols
  • Them Dirty Roses
  • Skeez
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Arts & Entertainment

Post Malone’s Oxford Stop Cut From Upcoming Stadium Tour

Published

4 months ago

on

May 2, 2026

By

Post Malone has cancelled the Oxford show as well as others from his upcoming stadium tour.

Post Malone has canceled five shows on his upcoming Big Ass Stadium Tour Part 2, including the Oxford stop at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Post Malone’s summer stadium run is getting pushed back, and Oxford is among the cities losing a show. The artist announced Friday that he is canceling all May dates on his Big Ass Stadium Tour Part 2, citing the need for more time to finish his new music. In a handwritten message posted to Instagram, he told fans he wasn’t ready to launch the tour as scheduled and needed roughly three more weeks to complete the project.

The cancellations include stops in El Paso, Waco, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Tampa, and Oxford, where Post Malone and Jelly Roll had been scheduled to perform at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on June 5. The Oxford date was one of several college‑town shows cut from the first leg of the tour.

Ole Miss Athletics notified ticketholders Friday that refunds for the Oxford show will be processed immediately. Fans who purchased through the school’s ticket office were told to expect refunds within 14 days, covering admission, parking, fees, and VIP packages. Third‑party buyers were directed to contact their ticket sellers.

While Malone emphasized that the delay is about finishing his upcoming double album, several of the canceled shows had reportedly struggled with ticket sales, with some venues offering discounts and student promotions in recent weeks. Widespread ticket availability at multiple venues was reported by Digital Music News, which cited seating charts and pricing data showing large sections unsold in the weeks leading up to the tour.

The rescheduled tour is now set to begin June 12 in Indianapolis.

Post Malone, born Austin Post, is one of the most commercially successful artists of the last decade, blending hip‑hop, pop, and country influences into a style that’s made him a fixture on radio and streaming charts. He’s known for hits like Circles, Rockstar, and Sunflower, and for a touring schedule that usually packs stadiums and arenas. His shows tend to draw a wide mix of fans, which is part of why the Oxford date had been circled on the calendar for months.

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Arts & Entertainment

Outdoor Dining Options Leaves Restaurant Owners and Managers Hopeful

Published

6 years ago

on

March 11, 2021

By

By AJ Norwood and Justin Claas
Journalism Students

Oxford restaurants such as The Blind Pig and Proud Larry’s are looking to make their outdoor seating areas permanent. However, they have a lot of hoops to jump through with the city in order to make that happen.

The owner of Proud Larry’s, Scott Caradine, says that the city thinks these outdoor seating options are a good thing, but some remodeling needs to be done in order for this to take place.

 “Their plan is to keep them year-round, but they want to make them permanent and they want them to look nice,” Scott said.

The Blind Pig is a restaurant that didn’t originally offer an outdoor seating experience. Despite this, manager David Moore says that this is something that the Blind Pig has always been interested in pursuing.

“We have been really eager to invest in our outdoor dining to make it more worthy of the Square,” Moore said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phRKQxytrUw&ab_channel=JustinClaas

While these restaurants are still making plans to improve their outdoor dining experience, the city officials have not made a final decision on what to do. Caradine says that this is something that he hopes they can continue in the future to satisfy their customers.

“We hope they make it permanent,” Caradine said. “We look forward to them making something permanent here so we can use it because we like it. Our customers like it.”

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