ART
Judging Apple Pies
As anyone within phone distance of my house knows, my wife Lucy is currently
involved in staging a Friends of Holstein Park Apple Pie Contest to benefit
our favorite charity, Holstein Park.
On a fall afternoon on Sunday, October 23, she and her Friends of Holstein Park will be holding a contest to decide who can bake the best apple pie in Bucktown.
From my own limited research into major news stories, this contest will not only determine the best apple pie ever made in Bucktown, but also the city of Chicago, the County of Cook and most of the inhabited parts of Illinois.
Outside of the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, where state fair judges lean toward pies baked by certain local downstate bakers and submitted minutes before the judging, this could be the most significant food judging since the Department of Agriculture started testing for mad cow disease.
When first presented with the idea of holding an apple pie baking contest in Holstein Park, I was skeptical. The first problem: who’s going to enter an apple pie contest? The second: who’s going to show up to eat them?
Despite my skepticism, the Friends of Holstein Park went forward with their wacky notion, printing 500 entry forms. My job at the recently held Bucktown Arts Fest was to distribute them. By the end of the fest, I found I had given out all but a couple dozen – over 400 entry forms -- and my email that night included requests for more from some of Bucktown’s finest restaurants so they too could show their apple pie prowess.
Who knew?
I immediately contacted the friends and informed them we had a problem: people were planning to enter. Not one or two, or one or two dozen, but maybe 50 or more – and they included the pastry chefs from some of Chicago’s finest restaurants.
The Friends of Holstein Park Apple Pie Contest was getting out of hand.
So who will decide what is the best apple pie in Bucktown?
I ran into the alderman, Ted Matlak, at the Bucktown Arts Fest and asked if he would be willing to serve as a judge.
“No way,” he said. “I was asked once to judge this neighborhood group brownie contest and we all got together and said, ‘hey, let’s give it to the 12-year-old.’ Never again.”
I asked the alderman whether Mayor Daley would be interested. He doesn’t do Sunday events, Matlak said. I asked whether he thought we could get Jesse Jackson Jr.. Matlak frowned.
I then suggested we pursue Gov. Blagojevich, but since the Governor is now recruiting 10,000 supporters to attend his re-election announcement on the same day, the idea of having him announce his re-election then go judge an apple pie contest is like asking him to walk and chew gum at the same time.
On a whim, I asked not a politician, but a political reporter: Mike Flannery, chief political correspondent for CBS Channel 2 News.
“I’d love to,” he said. “Apple pie and politics go together. But you have to promise me one thing: this has to be as good as the Sycamore County Pumpkin Festival.”
“You’re setting the bar awfully low,” I said. “How hard can it be to outdraw the Sycamore County Pumpkin Festival?”
“Pretty hard,” he said. “They had 3,000 people there last year.”
I gulped.
The contest planning committee – yes, even pie contests have planning committees – had their sights set on bigger fish. They wanted a judging panel of the highest distinction.
First on board was Mindy Segal, the proprietor
of Hot Chocolate and one of the most famous pastry chefs in Chicago. Then
came Stephanie Samuels, owner of Angel Food Bakery; and Koren Grieveson, chief
chef at Avec, another of Chicago’s tonier restaurants. Finally Kate
Neumann, pastry chef for MK (who apprenticed under Segel) signed on and volunteered
to donate one of her signature pies to our pie auction.
“Don’t you think people will be intimidated if the judging panel
is all professionals?” I asked my wife. “What about people who
just like eating pie?
“That’s why we have Maria Mariottini (producer of the Bucktown Arts Fest) as a judge,” she said. “She thinks of eating as an art.”
“How about more citizen judges? How about you,” I asked.
“No can do,” she said. “I’m entering.”
“But you’re running the event,” I said.
“It’s a blind judging process. Everyone gets a number and pies are judged by the number. Truly, the best pie will win,” she said.
“But you don’t bake,” I reminded her.
“I’m practicing,” she said. “And I have the internet. I’ll go online, find a couple recipes and kind of mix them all up into the perfect pie.”
“And how does that make you a winner?” I asked.
“It’s all in the apples,” she said, “and I have the best apples on the planet.”
The Friends of Holstein Park Apple Pie Contest will be held Sunday, October 23, at Holstein Park, 2200 N. Oakley in Chicago. To enter, click on the accompanying ad to obtain a copy of the rules and entry form. All entry forms must be submitted by October 15 (but pies can be delivered up to 15 minutes prior to the event.
People attending the event will be treated to bluegrass music, pumpkin painting for the kids, a silent auction of Bucktown gift certificates and a lot of pie. All proceeds benefit The Friends of Holstein Park.
