Four pounds of fortuitous timing

The cheesecake with a story good enough to eat

ANNIE D. STUTLEY

Chris Ortego of Cotton Blues Cheesecake Company doesn’t believe success happens by chance, but he does believe in timing. “If you’re prepared when opportunity comes, that’s when you create your own luck.”

When Chris’ father was rushed to the emergency room in 2009, he mentioned to his nurse that his son was in the country club business. The nurse, whose own son had just graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Las Vegas, asked for Chris’ contact information. Her son was Shaun Davis, a young pastry chef eager to tackle his first professional gig. Shaun called Chris immediately but was intimidated by the demands of running a dessert line in a busy kitchen; he spent the next two years working in a bakery and learning the business. Confident in the experience he gained, he called Chris again just as Chris was looking for a pastry chef for his new restaurant, Cotton Blues in Hattiesburg.