How sweet it is: Jonathan Gold and Evan Kleiman award Renee Tracy’s salted cinnamon honey pie the blue ribbon for Best in Show. (Photo by Jesse Fulton/KCRW) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)
Congratulations to all the winners of our eighth annual KCRW Good Food Pie Contest! Once again, our grande dame of pie, Evan Kleiman, presided over a fun-filled day on UCLA’s Royce Quad. Our judges tasted their way through 374 pies in eight categories: fruit, savory, cooked custard, cream, nut, vegan and a special Cuban category that was inspired by the Fowler Museum at UCLA. This year, contestants also entered pies in a new sweet potato pie category sponsored by the Universal Pictures film, “Almost Christmas.”
In recent years, fruit and savory pies have won Best in Show. But after much heated debate, a pie in the cooked custard category swept the show, surprising even our judges.
BEST IN SHOW
Renee Tracy’s salted cinnamon honey pie. (Photo by Jackie Liu/KCRW) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)
Best in Show: Salted cinnamon honey pie by Renee Tracy
The judges awarded Renee Tracy’s salted cinnamon honey pie the Best in Show ribbon for its balance and nuanced sweetness.
BEST CRUST
Karla Subero’s blueberry pie won best crust. (Photo by Jackie Liu/KCRW) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)
Best Crust: Blueberry pie by Karla Subero
Karla Subero’s blueberry pie crust was so well executed that pie contest judge Sherry Yard was able to lift this beauty out of its pie pan intact, ending all discussion as to the winner for Best Crust.
FRUIT PIES
“Berry’s Gone Wild” by T.A. Thole. (Photo by Jackie Liu) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)
1st Place: “Berries Gone Wild” pie by T.A. Thole 2nd Place: White miso caramel apple pie by Nicole Bigley 3rd Place: “Obama’s Crack” (nectarine) pie by Woolf Kanter
SAVORY PIES
Stephanie Cabral’s steak mushroom cheese pie won this year’s savory category. (Photo by Jackie Liu/KCRW) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)
1st Place: Steak mushroom cheese pie by Stephanie Cabral 2nd Place Thai pork and basil hand pies by Pruitt Kerdchoochuen 3rd Place: Tomato pie by Bari Stevens-Chapman
CREAM PIES
Kevin Winzer’s banana cream dulce de leche pie with pecan shatter. (Photo by Jackie Liu/KCRW) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)
1st Place: Banana cream dulce de leche pie with pecan shatter by Kevin Winzer 2nd Place: Banana cream pie by Jack Oleksinski 3rd Place: “Chocolate Buzz” pie by Patricia Lapiezo
NUT PIES
Chocolate pecan pie by Mary Quirk won the nut category. (Photo by Jackie Liu/KCRW) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)
1st Place: Chocolate pecan pie by Mary Quirk 2nd Place: “Dirty” whisky nut pie by Jennifer Newfield 3rd Place: Bourbon pecan pie with almond wheat crust by Amanda Gatlin
COOKED CUSTARD PIES
Emily Wright’s buttermilk custard pie with spelt crust won second place in this year’s cooked custard category. (Photo by Jackie Liu/KCRW) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)
1st Place: Salted cinnamon honey pie by Renee Tracy (also awarded Best in Show) 2nd Place: Buttermilk custard pie with spelt crust by Emily Wright 3rd Place: Chocolate chess pie by Karen Smyrl
VEGAN PIES
Karen Uyeda’s amaretto cherry pie with coconut oil crust won this year’s vegan pie category. (Photo by Jackie Liu/KCRW) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)
1st Place: Amaretto cherry pie with coconut oil crust by Karen Uyeda 2nd Place: Vegan pear and pecan pie by Adam Byers 3rd Place: Sour cherry pie by Christopher Riedesel
SWEET POTATO PIES
T.A. Thole’s sweet potato cornbread pie won first place in the sweet potato pie category. (Photo by Jackie Liu) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)
1st Place: Sweet potato cornbread pie by T.A. Thole 2nd Place: Sweet potato cheesecake pie with graham cracker and pecan crust by Yuan Hua 3rd Place: Cardamom tahini sweet potato pie with Speculoos crust by Nicole Bigley
CUBAN PIES
Yesemia Fernandez’s ropa vieja pie won this year’s Cuban category. (Photo by Jackie Liu/KCRW) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)
1st Place: Ropa vieja pie by Yesemia Fernandez 2nd Place: Cuban pastelón pie by Karen Chao 3rd Place: Salted caramel mango guava rum pie by T.A. Thole
Tasting all 374 pies ain’t easy, but someone’s gotta do it! Let’s hear it for this year’s pie contest judges: Adam Perry Lang, Ann Kirk, Annie Miler, Christina Olufson, Christine Moore, Clara Polito, Clemence Gossett, Curtis Stone, Dahlia Narvaez, David LeFevre, Evan Tessler, Genevieve Gergis, Gustavo Arellano, Hourie Sahakian, Jessie T. Usher, Jonathan Gold, Jonathan Graham, Johnny Ryan Murphy, Lindsay Hollister Heffner and Matt Heffner, Meadow Ramsey, Michael Anthony, Noelle Carter, Robert Wemischner, Rose Lawrence, Sang Yoon, Sarah Lange, Sherry Yard, and Valerie Gordon. (Photo by Camellia Tse/KCRW) (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)
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