Congratulations to the 2018 Good Food Pie Contest Winners!

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.