Foodies Eat Cheesecake Too

These days, Facebook might be the last place you’d go for a taste of the sweet life. Social media is more likely to spike your blood pressure than your blood sugar. But it’s a pretty potent platform for launching a business or building a community.

Foodies

Jason Stoner is one of the mods at Foodies of Lafayette, a massive online community with more than 100,000 members, operated by Jason and the group’s founder, Heidi Jacobs MacDonald.

Jason Stoner left a 30 year career to take over the 100,000-strong Facebook-centered group, Foodies of Lafayette, and their allied community refrigerators non-profit

Jason is also the chef and host of Sunday Dinners, a monthly dinner party that blends fine dining with good old-fashioned hospitality. Invitations are hard to come by at Sunday Dinners. There are just six spots at his dining room table, so it’s not uncommon for reservations to be auctioned off at local fundraisers.

Jason is largely self-taught in the kitchen, sparked by the challenge of learning to cook for his kids. He grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and moved to Lafayette 15 years ago to be with his partner, Stephan.

Cheesecake

Seth Dahlen is owner of LA Cheesecake Bakery. Seth grew up in Perry and Abbeville and got his culinary start early, working in restaurants as a teenager. He fell for cheesecake while working at Black’s Café, where a coworker roped him into helping with dessert prep.

Seth Dahlen, Co-Owner of LA Cheesecake Bakery, selling cheesecakes from their bakery and from their vending machine in the Mall of Acadiana

That spark led to a slow, deliberate build—he and his wife started by selling cakes from their home and building a reputation through Facebook. By 2022, they opened a storefront in Lafayette. Now, he’s running a full-time bakery with a cult following, offering more than sixty flavors and even stocking a cheesecake vending machine at the mall.