Stacey Mei Yan Fong is a home baker living in Brooklyn, NY. She was born in Singapore, lived in Indonesia, grew up in Hong Kong, and moved to the States to pursue a degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She spent a decade designing in the fashion industry, and during that time she launched her "50 Pies, 50 States" project which led to her slinging pies at Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Shop. Now, her pies have been featured by CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, Eater, and beyond.
Stacey Mei Yan Fong is a home baker living in Brooklyn, NY. She was born in Singapore, lived in Indonesia, grew up in Hong Kong, and moved to the States to pursue a degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She spent a decade designing in the fashion industry, and during that time she launched her "50 Pies, 50 States" project which led to her slinging pies at Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Shop. Now, her pies have been featured by CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, Eater, and beyond.
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00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:23
Speaker 1
I grew up in a Chinese culture where, like, you don't really like voice when you like love someone or like you the way you show that you love someone is like through food by giving them food and cooking them food. And so, like, that's how I decided to, like, show all my friends, like, how much I like love and appreciate them for, like, making the time that I've had in America, like, so special.
00:00:25:23 - 00:01:00:19
Speaker 1
And why, like, I continue to want to be here and, like, even when America, like, tests my love for it, which it does all the time, at the end of the day, the people that make this place like so wonderful and so special for me - they’re why I want to stay here and the people that I have in my life like they’re, they’re are also like trying to like, make change so that the future's better for everybody and like, yeah, like, and what's better than like, being able to, like, see your friend's face eat a slice of pie that you've made and there's just like, the biggest grin on their face, like, that's just the
00:01:00:19 - 00:01:07:16
Speaker 1
best. Like feeding people is just the best.
00:01:07:18 - 00:01:29:22
Speaker 2
Welcome to the Prix Fixe podcast. Conversations with the New Voices of the Culinary World. produced and hosted by me Jordan Haro. Stacey Mei Yen Fong is a home baker living in Brooklyn, New York. She was born in Singapore, lived in Indonesia, grew up in Hong Kong, and then moved to the United States to pursue a degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
00:01:30:00 - 00:01:48:15
Speaker 2
She spent a decade designing in the fashion industry, and during that time she launched her ‘50 Pies, 50 States’ project, which led to her slinging pies at Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Shop. and now her pies have been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, Eater and beyond. I met Stacey while on a trip to New York City in 2022.
00:01:48:17 - 00:02:10:14
Speaker 2
Her charisma and sincere approach to her ‘50 pies, 50 States’ project immediately grabbed my attention. These days, it feels like anything branded “Go America” feels a little politically charged. But Stacey's appreciation of the United States, all through meaningful experiences shared with friends, felt like a breath of fresh air. And luckily she was down to record an interview on short notice.
00:02:10:16 - 00:02:22:23
Speaker 2
We met up in Prospect Park amidst a dreamy summer rain shower, so it was super fun to hear her perspective before the book's launch, and since then it's been blowing up. Let's dive in.
00:02:23:01 - 00:02:43:05
Speaker 1
I am Stacey Mei Yan Fong and I started a project about five or six years ago called 50 Pies 50 States. I was applying for my green card and I wanted a way to learn about America. I had already been here since 2006 for college, and it came time for me to decide, like, am I going to stay here?
00:02:43:05 - 00:03:00:03
Speaker 1
Am I going to move back to Hong Kong? What am I going to do with my life? So I was like, I'm going to apply for my green card. I'm going to make America my home. And I always feel like the best way to learn about a new place or a country is through food. And I thought pie was the most American food ever.
00:03:00:03 - 00:03:15:00
Speaker 1
So I was like, And I also love to give myself a very complicated project. So I was like, okay, I'm going to bake a pie for every state, and then I'm going to give the pie to someone that I know from that state as kind of like my love letter to this country and the people that I've met along the way.
00:03:15:02 - 00:03:42:07
Speaker 1
So yeah. So now I bake pies. Yeah. So I was born in Singapore and I lived there for a couple of years, then moved to Indonesia. And then when I was five I moved to Hong Kong and that's kind of where I did my most growing up before I came over for college here in Savannah, Georgia. And my dad worked in the hotel industry.
00:03:42:07 - 00:04:05:10
Speaker 1
So we traveled a lot. And like I basically lived like it was so fun. It was basically like ‘The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,’ but like in real life and like me and my sisters got to stay in, like, all these really, really nice hotels and eat all this really great food. And it was the best. Like one of my favorite childhood memories is meeting my dad at whatever hotel he was working at.
00:04:05:10 - 00:04:30:20
Speaker 1
That and sitting by the pool, going swimming. And then I would get out of the pool and order a club sandwich with fries and a pineapple smoothie, and I would just like sit there in a robe. And that's like something I did, like all throughout my childhood and like, yeah, I lived a very, very blessed life. And it was so, so great and it was so great to get like exposed to so many different kinds of food, meet so many different kinds of people.
00:04:30:20 - 00:04:53:19
Speaker 1
Like and one of my favorite memories as a kid was my dad was working on a resort in Hawaii and they shut down the whole resort. So it was just my family and the staff. And in that summer, every week I worked in a different department. So I worked with housekeeping and then like with room service and then got to kind of see like the inner workings of what it was like in a hotel.
00:04:53:19 - 00:05:13:00
Speaker 1
So that's kind of like how I grew up, which was really cool. And then when it when it came time for me to decide like where I was going to go to college, I went to a British school in Hong Kong. So all my friends were going to college in England. But I always had this like fascination and love of America and American culture.
00:05:13:00 - 00:05:34:03
Speaker 1
And I really wanted to go to college here. And when I was looking at options, the obvious choice was because I was in design and working in fashion. So the obvious choice is to go to Parsons or FIT. It was really, really expensive to go to school there, and me and my friend Andrew were watching the show One Tree Hill. In One Tree Hill
00:05:34:03 - 00:06:03:10
Speaker 1
they mentioned going to the Savannah College of Art and Design, and we had no idea where Savannah, Georgia was. So we looked it up and he was like, Why don't you just apply like just for fun? And I was like, okay. So I applied and I ended up getting in and I was like, You know what? Maybe I will just like, totally just like, jumble up my whole life, like, break the bubble that I'm in and take this huge risk because, like, there's only so many points in your life where you can do that, where there's like very little consequence.
00:06:03:10 - 00:06:22:12
Speaker 1
And like, if I didn't love Savannah, like, I can always leave and go somewhere else. So yeah, I moved from Hong Kong to Savannah, Georgia for college and it was like majorly a culture shock. And for the first couple of months I was like, What am I doing? But it ended up being like the best decision I've ever made in my life.
00:06:22:12 - 00:06:50:02
Speaker 1
All the friends that I made in college are still my friends now, and most of the pies went to people that I went to college with. And yeah, I if you have any chance to like, completely shake up your life, like just do it because, like, why not? My dad loves movies, so we would watch movies all the time and it was just like any movie, like I've probably seen like a million times, mostly of they’re World War Two based as well.
00:06:50:04 - 00:07:11:02
Speaker 1
We watched a lot of Band of Brothers and my dad loves like Simon and Garfunkel and like old country music. And so I was exposed to all of that too, which was really nice. But I found a particular love in Dolly Parton because she kind of like was everything I wanted as a role model. And she just like did whatever she wanted.
00:07:11:04 - 00:07:30:08
Speaker 1
But always stayed true to herself and always like helps people along the way. And I just like became like completely obsessed with her music. And then also, like while I was watching all these movies of my dad, like something I always wanted to do was go on like a really long road trip because obviously I was born in Singapore, that's a tiny island.
00:07:30:14 - 00:07:51:20
Speaker 1
And then I grew up in Hong Kong. That's also a tiny island. Road trips weren't really a thing. So like this whole idea of going on this long trip in the same country where you stop at different places is something that, like I found so fascinating and I just like, wanted to eat at diners and like, listen to music really loud in a car, driving down a really, really long highway.
00:07:51:21 - 00:08:19:20
Speaker 1
Like it just like was this thing that sounded so romantic to me and like, something that, like, I've chased my whole life. So when I went to Savannah College of Art and Design, I went in thinking I wanted to do fashion, but I ended up doing fibers and accessory design. So it's like textiles and screen printing and weaving and it was so, so fun.
00:08:19:20 - 00:08:43:10
Speaker 1
And then they ended up adding accessory design as a minor. So your design like learning how to make bags and shoes and so I kind of like combined those two things and made like my own many major. And so I spent the first decade I lived in New York working at like various handbag brands, like designing handbags and belts and accessories and all that good stuff.
00:08:43:16 - 00:09:13:13
Speaker 1
So I definitely like take anything I've learned in my design world back into pie world, which is really nice. Like I always think about like the way a pie is going to look at the end and like the layout and composing it in a certain way. And I feel like those two things really work hand in hand. I grew up mostly pies were savory for me because like British pies are savory, Australian pies are savory and like, it would be like a small little snack pie all the time.
00:09:13:13 - 00:09:35:18
Speaker 1
Like, I feel like it's not only America kind of runs the gamut in like sweet pies. coming here. I was like, whoa. Like there's like strawberry rhubarb pies and there's like, ice box pies and like, there's just so many different kinds. And because the only really pie I ate before was apple, which I love. But like, the first time I tasted a strawberry rhubarb pie, I was like, This is the best thing I've ever eaten.
00:09:35:18 - 00:09:55:03
Speaker 1
And then the first time I had a key lime pie, my head just about fell off because I was like, This is so and so. Like, I think like that's the exciting part about pie too, is that like, it's also very regional and like, people have like different pie memories, but they're all good. No one has like a bad pie memory.
00:09:55:06 - 00:10:19:18
Speaker 1
It might be like a funny story of like how they burnt a pie during Thanksgiving, but like, everybody has, like a good pie memory. I feel like the first definitely pie I had was probably at McDonald's like that, that fried apple pie, which I love very much. The texture is just unmatched. And then it was definitely at a restaurant at one of the hotels my dad was working on, and you could get it a la mode, which I didn't know what that meant.
00:10:19:18 - 00:10:39:06
Speaker 1
And he taught me with ice cream and I was like, okay, I went to a la mode my whole life and then I was like, This is amazing. Like, it's like sweet, but a little bit savory. And there's like, so many different textures. And then like when the ice cream, like, slowly melts, like into the hot pie, like, that's just like the most perfect feeling.
00:10:39:06 - 00:11:11:02
Speaker 1
It's so like, warm and lovely and delicious and like, it's like, slowly being hugged, but not in a way that's, like, weird in, like, a nice way. Yeah. My decision to move to New York was kind of one that, like, started when I was much younger. Like, I wrote myself a letter when I was 15 and I was like, I'm going to move to New York, I'm going to go to Parsons.
00:11:11:02 - 00:11:29:12
Speaker 1
I'm going to buy a really expensive, long camel coat, and I'm going to own one of those apartments where the elevator, like opens up into the full floor loft. And I haven't done maybe any of those things. I don't even have the coat. I moved to New York, though, and I've lived here for over a decade, so I feel like I've achieved that.
00:11:29:13 - 00:11:47:13
Speaker 1
But the thing with moving to New York, it felt more like coming home. Like I felt like I knew the city from like all the music I listened to that's about New York, about watching all the movies that are based in New York. Like, my favorite movie is When Harry Met Sally, and like, just watching them walk down the streets.
00:11:47:13 - 00:12:10:08
Speaker 1
Now, having walked down those same streets or eaten at those same places, like it's so wonderful. And also I'm a city kid. Like I grew up in Hong Kong, so growing like moving here wasn't that much of a shock. It kind of felt like coming home again, which is really nice. And also like when we moved to Hong Kong, that was like my dad's decision, you know, It was like his job took us there.
00:12:10:13 - 00:12:29:13
Speaker 1
Well, it's like moving to New York. That was like purely my decision as well as like going to Savannah. Like, that was my decision. And making this place my home is like my choice, which has been really nice. Like this is the place that like I've chosen to be, even though sometimes, you know, New York really tests you like buying a trashcan here.
00:12:29:13 - 00:12:47:17
Speaker 1
is very hard because you got to lug it on a subway. But like, I love being here and I love that like, I have chosen to make this my home. So, like, New York is like it's where all the food is, too. So it kind of like goes hand in hand because like, I've always loved food. I mean, everybody can say that, like, food is the best.
00:12:47:23 - 00:13:11:13
Speaker 1
I always had food on the back burner while I was working on fashion because, like, I loved fashion and I still do. I found that I got to a point where I was like at a job that I was like really good at but didn't really care about anymore. And then the with the pandemic, like, I lost my fashion job and then I could fully I was doing the pie thing on the side.
00:13:11:15 - 00:13:32:15
Speaker 1
And then with the pandemic, like I got forced to basically, like, pivot my whole life and then I pivoted my whole life and focused straight on the pies. And then I got the cookbook deal out of it and then started working at Fourt & Twenty Blackbirds, the bakery for a year and a half, and then decided to leave the bakery.
00:13:32:15 - 00:13:52:13
Speaker 1
When I was working on the book. And then Cold emailed Katherine And now I work at Big Night because I loved her store. So I was like when I was like working on the manuscript, but I was like, I can't work on a line anymore. Like, I can't because I couldn't like hop on a quick call or like, people are hustling in New York.
00:13:52:13 - 00:14:20:19
Speaker 1
And I feel like what's so beautiful about New York is I've heard a lot of people say that you can eat around the world in one city and so some of my friends that I've visited from Hong Kong, like some of the Chinese food here, or Cantonese food here. We're like this like rivals some of the places we eat back home because it's just like all these immigrants have brought, like their cuisine, like you could literally eat food from like Syria and Lebanon and Egypt and Turkey.
00:14:20:19 - 00:14:42:08
Speaker 1
And like, I just feel like that's so magical. Like, it's so wonderful that, like, my old design career took me here. But what's really kept me here are the people I've met and the food. It's it's made it so, like, such a comforting place that I can go and get like, the wanton noodles that I grew up eating in Hong Kong, in Chinatown.
00:14:42:08 - 00:14:58:23
Speaker 1
And it's like, just as good, if not better, because it's only a subway ride away instead of a 19 hour flight. I feel like that's like the magic of New York. People are always like ‘it's a big city. It must feel so lonely,’ but it's not. like it. You feel really, like, loved here and it's like such a community, which is really nice.
00:14:58:23 - 00:15:17:20
Speaker 1
And a lot of the community has to do with like being surrounded by other people that are also want to eat really good food. Everybody wants to go out to eat here all the time, like half of my group chat with my friends are like, my God, I found the sandwich spot like in Bensonhurst, Like we all have to go to Bensonhurst to eat this, like roast beef sandwich.
00:15:17:20 - 00:15:47:13
Speaker 1
And it's like, okay. Or like, I found this amazing, like, crab place. It's like on the way out to the Rockaways. Like where? Where you go to the beach every week. I'm like, Let's go there. And it's like, the magic part of New York is you can like, eat around the world, then sleep in your own bed. So the back story, I guess the precursor to the project was I was kind of in a really weird place in my life.
00:15:47:13 - 00:16:11:10
Speaker 1
Like I had been on various, like work visas and throughout the years, like I would spend all my vacations or like family holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas at, like different friends houses here. And I was always so jealous because, like, we would go back to their house and it would be like the house that they grew up in and they would like I could see like all their high school bedrooms.
00:16:11:12 - 00:16:33:17
Speaker 1
Well, as like I spent most of my childhood, like moving around not only just countries, but also apartments like we never really stayed in an apartment longer than two or three years. So I had no, like childhood bedroom or childhood home. And I felt really like untethered. And I called it like my period of the sads like I was like in the deep sads.
00:16:33:17 - 00:16:52:08
Speaker 1
And my best friend at the time bought me the Four & Twenty Blackbirds cookbook and he was like, Maybe you should just like, bake a little. Cause like, I loved baking and cooking. Anyway, like the first year I lived in New York, like, I would just, like, cook for all my friends any time. I was sad. So he was like, Maybe you should just bake through the sadness.
00:16:52:08 - 00:17:10:19
Speaker 1
And I was like, okay, I'll bake through the sadness. So I ended up baking every single pie in that cookbook when I had made the decision that I was going to apply for my green card through work, I was like, okay, like maybe I could bake a pie for every state. Like, it was kind of one of those things where like, we were hanging out and I said this out loud, and he was like, That would be pretty cool.
00:17:10:19 - 00:17:34:20
Speaker 1
And I was like, Yeah, like. And each pie could be kind of based on like because a lot of states have like a state food or state fruit. And if they don't like, my friends have talked about things that they ate growing up, like my friend Jeffrey talked about pepperoni rolls ad nauseam because he's from West Virginia and it's like an old, like Italian thing that was brought over that like miners and workers would eat during the day.
00:17:34:20 - 00:18:03:15
Speaker 1
And so, like, I was like I could turn that into a pie, I think like from my pie journey. And so that's kind of how the project started, was to like for me to bake myself out of sadness, which it has, you know, it worked that and therapy. Yeah. So I did the pies in alphabetical order because 50 is a big number.
00:18:03:17 - 00:18:30:09
Speaker 1
And when you look at all 50 like it, at the beginning, it felt so overwhelming. So like in life, I always think about my life like three pies at a time. So I would only think like of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, And I'd be like, okay, like Arkansas whats the order? Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas. Yeah, Yeah. So like, I would think of it three pies at a time.
00:18:30:09 - 00:18:47:00
Speaker 1
And once I finished that third pie, then I would think about the next three. And that's kind of like how I slowly like truck through the project. And when I started the project, I was still working in fashion. So it only really do like one pie a month because I'd want to put like my full attention to it.
00:18:47:00 - 00:19:05:10
Speaker 1
Like I would like research the pie, talk to the person that the pie was going to make test pies. And until I finally settled on what the recipe was going to be. So it was like a long, long process, which a lot of people like when I first like started doing the project were like, How come you didn't do this faster?
00:19:05:10 - 00:19:32:08
Speaker 1
And it's like, well, really like it's my project. So it could have taken ten years if I wanted it to in the process of researching all those pies, like I've met so many incredible people for the South Dakota Pie, I was like really stumped because like, barely anybody I know has been to South Dakota. But my buddy Matt, who got the Massachusetts pie, did a graphic design project for this historian in South Dakota.
00:19:32:08 - 00:19:54:00
Speaker 1
So I got to meet this historian in South Dakota, talk to him all about South Dakota. And then I ended up going to South Dakota to deliver the pie to him and see like Crazy Horse and the Badlands and Rapid City, South Dakota. Like for myself. And I feel like if I didn't start this project, I don't know if I would have ever gone to South Dakota, you know, which is pretty cool.
00:19:54:00 - 00:20:12:14
Speaker 1
And like, my end goal is definitely to visit all 50 states. I'm making pretty good progress. I have a scratch off map that like I scratch off quite a lot. But my next goal is definitely like, I really want to go to Idaho. Like, I just feel like Idaho is so, so beautiful and like, take a nap in a hammock by a big lake in Idaho.
00:20:12:14 - 00:20:35:21
Speaker 1
Just like, kind of sounds like a good time. I feel like I love America so much because it's like it feels like a place of, like, limitless possibility. If I wanted tomorrow to, like, drive to a different state, like, if I wanted to drive to, like, Utah tomorrow, I could drive to Utah and I would be in like a completely different climate with completely different food, with people that sound completely different than they sat in New York.
00:20:35:21 - 00:21:00:11
Speaker 1
Like, I just feel like that's so magical. Just the the vastness of this country just continuously, like, surprises me and like, I just, like, can't get enough of it. It's the music. It's obviously the people. Yeah. Like people love their state that they're from so much. And the passion that people have in America, whether for the good or the bad, it's like kind of incredible.
00:21:00:12 - 00:21:22:15
Speaker 1
The thing with America is that like, it tests your love all the time and everybody focuses on like all the negative things, which I am, you know? I do that too. I doom scroll just as much as everybody else. But like, what I focus on here is just like how vast and incredible this country is. You could go take a four hour drive, five hour drive, or you could drive all the way to Utah if you wanted to.
00:21:22:15 - 00:21:55:20
Speaker 1
And you're in like a completely different place and a completely different landscape with completely different food with people that sound completely different and like, that's just so magical. Like America is so vast. Any travel I've taken like within the States has been so wonderful and like, it's been so cool to just see the differences like between like Louisiana and Maine and New York and like eventually when I go take a nap in a hammock in Idaho, like it's just so wonderful and like, how could you not be, like, completely, like, in love with it?
00:21:55:20 - 00:22:26:08
Speaker 1
It's such, it's so it's like, for lack of a better word, it's like, so romantic, Like it's so cool that like in one whole country, there's so many different things. And like, I feel like America could really be 50 countries, but like, yeah, it's just I think it's like, so interesting. It's so wonderful. And like, through this project too, I feel like I've gotten my friends to look at their state in a different way, like from an outsider's eyes which has been really magical because like everybody has their hometown, right?
00:22:26:08 - 00:22:45:03
Speaker 1
Their small hometown that they were trying to leave to do something different. It just so it's funny because like my small hometown is Hong Kong, which is a huge city, but like, it's so nice for my friends, like from Florida, like that pie I gave them after the 2016 election. And like, they were like, so upset about everything.
00:22:45:07 - 00:23:09:23
Speaker 1
But they got to see Florida as, like, the only state that has a national park that is a coral reef. Florida has like Islamorada and the Keys and it's like such a wonderful place if you look at it from a different perspective. So it's been nice to be able to look at each state from not only like the negative way, but a positive way and to like remind people how wonderful where they grew up is
00:23:09:23 - 00:23:29:18
Speaker 1
I feel like it's so funny because I didn't really get like all my friends followed along, but I didn't really get like, I guess like recognized by the public would be the best way, like till the pandemic, I guess, because like, everybody was like, at home. So, like there was like more eyes on everything. I always knew I was going to finish.
00:23:30:00 - 00:23:49:13
Speaker 1
I didn't know when or like how long it was going to take me, but I never start anything that I'm not going to like give my full ass to. Like I never half ass anything in my life. Like because, like, there's only so many hours in a day, I don't really waste my time on anything that I don't care about.
00:23:49:13 - 00:24:11:05
Speaker 1
And I feel like that seems like a really like black and white and like, harsh way to lead your life. It's like, you know, when you run into someone that like, you barely ever see and you're like, We should definitely get lunch. I was like, Don't lie. Like, you're not going to get lunch. So it's like with when I start a project or like when I decide that I'm going to do something, like I'm going to do it to like the best of my ability, give like all of my attention to it.
00:24:11:05 - 00:24:30:16
Speaker 1
Because like, if it's something I feel like it's worth spending my time on too, like that's a thing that I feel like deserves my full attention or like, deserves all the care. And so when I started the project, there were definitely moments when I was like, my God, like there's so many left. Like, how am I going to get through this?
00:24:30:17 - 00:25:02:13
Speaker 1
But like, what really kept me going was like the person that I was going to give the pie to. Like they would get so excited about it and like getting to share pie with like, everybody that I loved, like that is kind of what got me through it. Like, it's I never really did it for like, I mean, I didn't I don't do it for monetary value, Like I give all the pies that I make away and I didn't do it for fame or anything like at the end of the day, what I really wanted to do with it was to like, acknowledge the friendships and the relationships that I've built in my time in
00:25:02:13 - 00:25:31:02
Speaker 1
America. And like, I grew up in a Chinese culture where, like, you don't really like voice when you like love someone or like you, The way you show that you love someone is like through food by giving them food and cooking them food. And so like, that's how I decided to like, show all my friends, like how much I like love and appreciate them for, like, making the time that I've had in America, like, so special and why, like, I continue to want to be here.
00:25:31:02 - 00:25:54:23
Speaker 1
And like, even when America like, tests my love for it, which it does all the time, at the end of the day, the people that make this place like so wonderful and so special for me they’re why I want to stay here and the people that I have in my life, like they're they're also like tryna like make change so that the future's better for everybody and like, yeah, like.
00:25:54:23 - 00:26:21:18
Speaker 1
And what's better than like, be able to like, see your friend's face, eat a slice of pie that you've made and there's just like the biggest grin on their face, like that's just the best. Like feeding people is just the best. The pies that are like the standouts in the 50, I mean, all of them, all of them stand out.
00:26:21:18 - 00:26:40:03
Speaker 1
It's like, you know, a Sophie's Choice. I can't pick my favorite child, one that's definitely one that like everybody was like, that is insane was the Nevada pie. So when I got to Nevada, I didn't really know what to do, but I spent some time in Vegas with my dad because he was working in a hotel project there.
00:26:40:05 - 00:27:12:05
Speaker 1
And I was fascinated with like, all you can eat buffets because like, that's really not a thing that happens anywhere else besides America and definitely like very focused in Las Vegas. And I was like, It would be pretty cool if, like, I could bake a pie that's like an all you can eat buffet. So because I am very much a card carrying Virgo and I do love Excel, I made a chart of like all the common denominators between all the casinos and the hotels on the strip and what they served at their all you can eat buffets.
00:27:12:05 - 00:27:31:00
Speaker 1
And I was like, okay, like, how can I make this into a pie? And I had this cast iron pan. That's for making cornbread that's like separated into sections. And I was like, I could bake like tiny pie compartments. And also the pie compartments kind of mimicked all the hot dishes that are on a buffet. So I was like, That's pretty cool.
00:27:31:04 - 00:27:51:00
Speaker 1
And then I was like, I can make eight slices, and half the pie could be savory and half the pie could be sweet. So it ended up being like a tasting menu of an all you can eat buffet, like on the savory side and an herbed crust. It was Caesar salad, shrimp cocktail, Alaskan king, crab legs, prime rib and mashed potatoes.
00:27:51:06 - 00:28:07:04
Speaker 1
And then on the sweet side in an all butter crust, it was chocolate mousse and ice cream sundae cheesecake and a fruit tart. So you kind of got like the best of an all you can eat buffet in one pie. It took a lot of planning because, like, everything kind of had to be done, like, all at once.
00:28:07:06 - 00:28:28:17
Speaker 1
I'm also testing kind of like the boundaries of what pie can be like. For me, pie is just like in a in a pie shell, like in a circle. But it doesn't necessarily have to be a circle either. Like some of the one of the pies. I think Nebraska was a rectangle because it's based off a pastry there called a Runza which is like a meat filled pie.
00:28:28:17 - 00:28:58:15
Speaker 1
And I tried with the project to make sure there was like sweet ones and salty ones. And I feel like the one that was like the greatest feat was definitely New York for New York. I decided I was going to make 150 mini apple pies with like an Entenmann's coffee cake crumble because like I love Entenmann’s coffee cake and Entenmann’s was also like one of the first like New York, like delivery food services like they would deliver Entenmann’s cakes like all over the city, which I thought was really cool.
00:28:58:17 - 00:29:18:16
Speaker 1
I baked 150 and I gave like some of it to my favorite provision store R&D foods. I gave some of it to the tattoo shop, I used to always go to East River and like, then I threw like a massive party for all of my friends that live here and like to get to see all of them in like one space eating these pies that I made like that.
00:29:18:16 - 00:29:35:02
Speaker 1
So it was like, so cool. And it was like, they are what make my New York journey so special, like my New York life here. So like to be able to, like, give that back to them was pretty great. When I got to the pie for Tennessee, I knew that it had to be something to do with Dolly Parton.
00:29:35:02 - 00:30:00:07
Speaker 1
And I know that Dolly Parton's favorite breakfast is biscuits and gravy. So I was like, It had to be a biscuits and gravy pie and I had to make a portrait out of her in pie crust. And that's exactly what I did. I mean, hopefully one day I hope I get to meet Dolly Parton. I hope every day I get closer and closer to that because I just feel like she's been such like in my life.
00:30:00:07 - 00:30:26:16
Speaker 1
She is the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit and like, she is like everything I want to be when I grow up. And it's not just the music, like it's like her as a person. Like she just feels like the greatest role model. And everybody says, like, you should never meet your heroes, but I feel like you shouldn’t meet your heroes unless they're Dolly Parton, you know, because I just feel like she is just in the Dolly Parton in the center of Dolly Parton’s
00:30:26:16 - 00:30:48:23
Speaker 1
soul is everything that everybody loves about America. She is like the embodiment of like all the goodness that this country has. And like, yeah, she is the love of my life. I made a pie that was based on a spam musubi and it had like a nori crust and then like rice and the spam and the furikake on the inside.
00:30:48:23 - 00:31:20:20
Speaker 1
And then I made a lattice with seaweed on top. That was like a really cool thing because like, spam is a thing that I've eaten all through my life. And I started really thinking about spam and thinking about like all those World War Two movies I would watch of my dad. And I was like, the correlation between like Korea, Japan, like Singapore, China, like all of these places and spam and like American occupation or like American soldiers coming over and bringing spam and then all these different cultures taking spam and making it their own.
00:31:21:01 - 00:31:41:04
Speaker 1
Like, that's kind of magical. Yeah, pie is American, but I feel like spam might be like the most American thing ever because like, spam is a thing that's brought so many different cultures together. That was kind of a thing that, like, I didn't really I only ever thought of spam as, like this delicious salty meat that I ate with rice and egg and hot sauce.
00:31:41:04 - 00:32:00:21
Speaker 1
But like, now it's so much more than that. It's like a cultural connector and like Korean army stew, having spam in it. Like, that's an American that that could be like, you know, something? You could say it's American food, too. You know, like spam musubi is American food, too. Like, that's kind of like the magical part of food connecting different cultures, too.
00:32:00:23 - 00:32:26:07
Speaker 1
Definitely The one that was like the craziest was South Dakota, because, like, going into it, I literally had no idea. And getting to talk to Eric, who got the pie, who's a historian, the pie ended up being something like so much more than it could ever be like, or I thought it could ever be. And like he introduced me to Sean Sherman, the Sioux chef, I got to, like, look through his cookbook, learn about Native American cuisine.
00:32:26:08 - 00:32:58:21
Speaker 1
Basically, the pie was like homemade sunflower milk, wild rice, rice pudding pie with like a Bergamot and Berry, like sauce on top of this, like pumpkin crunch. Like, it's like so many textures and it's just like, yeah, like getting to make that into a pie was so special. And then I think a pie that was like, so, so special for me was definitely Wyoming, not only because it was the last one, but it was like when I was developing the recipe for that pie.
00:32:58:21 - 00:33:18:00
Speaker 1
It's a bison chili pie. I was like, my God, like, I've gotten this far and I am almost finished. Like, it was like, so surreal when, like, I pulled that pie out of the oven, I was like, This is it. I mean, I also bake like all these other pies on the side. So it's not like I only did the 50 Pies project.
00:33:18:00 - 00:33:39:08
Speaker 1
Like on an average year, I bake about a pie a week maybe not really right now because it's a heat wave and I don't really want to try my oven on the journey of like getting to each pie has been like, so exploratory. And like anybody that I've gotten to meet along the way has been really great and like, yeah, like I've eaten so much pie at this point that it's kind of nuts, to be honest.
00:33:39:10 - 00:34:06:20
Speaker 1
Also my friends have eaten so much pie that I think they would get sick of it, but they never do, which is really nice. They're very kind. When I did the project, I like heavily documented it, like all the recipes and like I would write little blurbs about the pie, like fun state facts that I learned. And then I would write a little blurb on like what the pie was about.
00:34:06:20 - 00:34:43:23
Speaker 1
And then I would write like a dedication to the person that the pie was going to. And I started kind of really thinking really hard about like putting a book proposal together for a cookbook during a pandemic. My friend Kerry, who her book just came out, she kind of really helped me formulate like what a book proposal would be like, and it all kind of fell into my lap, which I'm very, very lucky, where a literary agent, my literary agent at the time, Christopher, reached out to me and was like, Hey, like, have you ever thought about putting this in a cookbook?
00:34:43:23 - 00:35:05:10
Speaker 1
And I was like, Actually, I put this book proposal together. And then while I was speaking to Christopher Michael, who is now my editor at Voracious, an imprint of Little Brown, reached out to me and was like, Hey, like, have you ever considered turning this into a cookbook? And and I had to be like, Well, I'm actually about to sign with a literary agency.
00:35:05:10 - 00:35:25:15
Speaker 1
You're going to have to talk to him and blah, blah, blah. When I gave Christopher my book proposal to look at, he was like, Whoa, you've written like a fully fledged book proposal already. And because I had time during the pandemic, we were doing nothing - besides watching trashy TV. And so I put the whole book proposal together and he just had to edit it.
00:35:25:15 - 00:35:58:09
Speaker 1
And then my book and I met with various publishers, and my book ended up going to auction, which was it ended up not going into auction because Michael at Voracious got it in a preempt, which is really exciting. And so yeah, that's the cookbook stuff happened really fast and it happened during the pandemic which is kind of crazy. 2020 was a very terrible year for a lot of people, but 2020 was also a really special year for me because I got to focus like all of my efforts into PIE.
00:35:58:11 - 00:36:17:10
Speaker 1
Yeah, I got a cookbook deal out of it, which is pretty great, honestly, very great. And I just turned in my manuscript, which is really fun. So now we're and I had my photoshoot for it and my illustrator sent all the illustrations for it, and now we're just like waiting for edits and waiting for the book to slowly come together.
00:36:17:12 - 00:36:42:19
Speaker 1
It'll publish Summer of 2023. So yeah, it's kind of crazy that this little project I started in my bedroom where I literally told my friends like, I'm going to bake a pie for every state is now going to be a cookbook. It's like kind of wild where this journey has taken me and like, I couldn't be more thankful and I couldn't be more humbled that people care about my silly ramblings, about how much I love America.
00:36:42:21 - 00:37:05:03
Speaker 1
As a girl that grew up on the other side of the world, yeah, I think it's also fun through the project, like seeing how even though I did grow up on the other side of the world, the things that like I have in common with people that grew up here, mostly what I think is really interesting was I was also listening to all the same early aughts emo bands as everybody was here.
00:37:05:03 - 00:37:23:20
Speaker 1
And I do have one terrible tattoo. That's a dedication to an early aughts emo band and like, yeah, lots of people have that here too. And like, yeah, it's pretty magical.
00:37:23:21 - 00:37:40:23
Speaker 1
Beyond the cookbook next year, I'm just kind of thinking about like how, like what's beyond this, you know, like I bake a lot of pies that are inspired by childhood memories or like, every time I go on a trip, I bake a pie. Like, based on that, like last I went to Cape Cod for the first time and I loved it so much.
00:37:40:23 - 00:38:07:00
Speaker 1
I ended up baking a beach plum pie because beach plums grow all over the cape and like, yeah, it's just like thinking of different ways I can incorporate pie into my life. And also, like, I love it. I love I feel like I'm going to give myself another project soon. Like during the pandemic, I baked a series of pies that were based on Nancy Meyers and Nora Ephron movies because they're my fave rom coms are my favorite movie.
00:38:07:00 - 00:38:30:12
Speaker 1
Like I'm that person. I hate scary movies and like, I just love a rom com because you know what you're getting. It's very, very comforting. I can watch When Harry Met Sally every single day if I had to. And yeah, it's just I feel like I'm going to slowly give myself like tiny different, like pie related projects and I feel like my ultimate dream would be to talk to Shawn Evans on Hot Ones about pie.
00:38:30:12 - 00:39:01:11
Speaker 1
I feel like eating spicy chicken wings and talking about pie would be pretty cool. But yeah, I don't know where the cookbook is going to take me. I'm just so happy to share the story of my journey here with everybody and. Also, a lot of the book is about like my friends and I'm really excited to share like the stories that I have with my friends, like those friendships and to see like other people be like, my God, I also did that with my buddy in Alabama, or I also did that.
00:39:01:11 - 00:39:19:18
Speaker 1
Like that's I feel like the beauty of this project is other people being like, my gosh, Like, I also had that experience in South Dakota. I also have that experience in California. Like it's going to be it's going to be like a really nice, like sharing experience. I don't know where book stuff is going to take me right now.
00:39:19:20 - 00:39:39:00
Speaker 1
I like everything else and thinking about my life. Three pies at a time, but this time it's a little more metaphor metaphorical because like, I'm not baking any more pies that are related to the project. But yeah, who knows where the world's going to take me pie wise.
00:39:39:01 - 00:39:58:22
Speaker 2
Thanks for listening everyone. For links and resources about everything discussed today, please visit the show notes in the episode and if you want to support the podcast, the most effective way to do so is at the subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other platform that you're listening in from Sharing the show with your friends and social media is always appreciated.
00:39:59:00 - 00:40:31:06
Speaker 2
Shout out to Shawn Myers for creating the awesome original music graphic elements made by Jason Cryer The show is produced by Homecourt Pictures. You can always reach out to me at JordanHar0 on Instagram, Twitter and follow the show @PrixFixePod on Instagram. Sorry my French is terrible. I just call Prix Fixe Pod or email us via prixfixepodcast@gmail.com.
00:40:31:08 - 00:40:44:17
Speaker 2
I appreciate every second of your attention and support and look forward to seeing you on the next one.