Congratulations to all the winners of our ninth annual KCRW Good Food Pie Contest! The beloved event returned after a one-year hiatus to UCLA’s Royce Quad on Sunday, May 6. Judging from the impressive turnout and record-breaking number of entries, anticipation appeared to be at an all-time high. Nearly 500 pies were entered in eight categories: fruit, savory, cooked custard, cream, nut, vegan and a special Oaxacan category, coordinated in partnership with the Fowler Museum at UCLA. This year the competition also sported a brand new kids’ category that had 30 budding bakers ages 10 and under vying for top honors.
In past years, fruit and savory pies have tended to dominate the competition, although 2016 saw a cooked custard pie win (Renee Tracy’s salted cinnamon honey pie stole the show). This year, the winning entry belonged to the cream category. With a chocolate pie, no less!
BEST IN SHOW
Best in Show: “Chocolate Cream with Toasted Meringue” by father/daughter team, Meg and Mike Craven.
The judges awarded Meg and Mike Craven’s pie the Best in Show ribbon for perfectly balanced chocolate filling and an exquisitely executed toasted topping.
BEST CRUST
Best Crust: “Spice beef hand pies” by Yuko McCollum.
McCollum’s golden brown hand pies had the right amount of flakiness to wow this year’s judging panel.
BEST DECOR
Best in decor: “Chocolate Cream with Toasted Meringue” by father/daughter team, Meg and Mike Craven.
Meg and Mike Craven manage to create a visually stunning toasted meringue topping that dropped jaws.
FRUIT PIES
1st Place: “Very berry pie” by Jenny Hu
2nd Place: “Blackberry lime pie” by Kevin Woods
3rd Place: “Loquat pie” by Naomi Kobrin
APPLE PIES
1st Place: “Apple bourbon” by Kevin Woods
2nd Place: “American Apple Pie with honey and orange” by Penny Keaton
3rd Place: “Apple ginger vanilla” by Angela Matsuoka
SAVORY PIES
1st Place: “Carmelized onion and butternut squash” by Kimberly State
2nd Place: “Spice beef hand pie” by Yuko McCollum
3rd Place: “BLM” by Ronald Bacon
CREAM PIES
1st Place: “Chocolate Cream with toasted meringue” by Meg and Mike Craven
2nd Place: “Peanut butter cream” by Kelly Groff
3rd Place: “Mudslide pie” by Lindsay Kirk
NUT PIES
1st Place: “Four roses Southern pecan” by Carolyn Wheeler
2nd Place: “Holiday chocolate and assorted nut pie” by Penny Keaton
3rd Place: “Triple nut caramel pie” by Patricia Lapiezo
CUSTARD PIES
1st Place: “Kaya toast pie” by Ann Leese
2nd Place: “Meyer lemon pie with pecan graham crust” by Jackson Kalb
3rd Place: “Salted caramel toffee chess pie” by Kelly Edwards
VEGAN PIES
1st Place: “Chocolate pudding pie” by Timiza Sanyika
2nd Place: “Vegan coconut pie” by Leslie Mialma
3rd Place: “Almond Joy coconut cream with chocolate almond fudge” by Beth Griffiths
KIDS CATEGORY
This year, kids were given their own category and we saw a handful of great pies from our young bakers!
1st Place: “Apple brown sugar pie” by Kate Sherry
2nd Place: “Banoffee pie” by Ivy Rietz
3rd Place: “Lemon blueberry icebox pie” by Caroline Kcenich
OAXACAN PIES
1st Place: “Oaxacan chocolate with mezcal meringue” by Emily Deasy
2nd Place: “Oaxacan mole maria” by Kelly Edwards
3rd Place: “Oaxaca baseball chocolate pie” by Kristin Windell
Thanks to an expert panel of food industry judges, we were able to taste hundreds of pies, break into countless flaky crusts, and have a great day of fun and food on UCLA’s gorgeous campus. Head over to facebook to see each entered pie and judge for yourself.