Art of the Pie

Ask anyone who knows me well and they'll tell you about my pie hang-ups. I think it started when I was about 10 and I made my first pie, I think a cherry with a lattice top. I say I think because I never got to taste that pie. My little bother and I were always fighting, and at 4 he didn't have a grasp (or maybe be did) of how sublimely irritating he could be. When the pie was cooling on the table, he sat next to it - staring at it - until my parents sent me upstairs for fear I would hit him just for breathing all over it.

Moments later, I heard my mother shout his name and my dad came barreling up the stairs to catch me before I caught him. He'd nudged the pie right off the table onto the carpet.

Having consummate pie-making family and in-laws as well as professional schooling has not exorcised me of that first pie splat. And a willing pastry chef mentor threw her hands up too. My pie filling has always been top-notch, but my crust...well, let's just say I'm better off with a crumb crust or something from the freezer section.

That is, until I spent a rainy Sunday afternoon with Kate McDermott.

Many of you have heard of Kate McDermott, so I feel like I'm preaching to the converted. But for those of you who haven't, consider yourself on notice. If you have a pie hang-up and you have the means, get thee to an Art of the Pie class. Kate is a quiet champion of pie, the aunt you never had who takes the time to help you get it right.

Classes at Art of the Pie are necessarily small - 6 people cutting and rolling and baking is just about the perfect size to still get plenty of Kate's attention. My friend Eric and I signed up for the class back in October and by mid-January our turn had arrived. We showed up with pie plates in hand and left with a baked pie and frozen gold - leaf lard for future crusts.

Each of us made our own crust and filling under Kate's gentle guidance, her zen bringing us all to one with pie. I went for apple - a benchmark, standard - fruit of the tree of knowledge. I followed her lead, loved the dough, gave it a drink when it was thirsty. It loved me back. I've never made a pie like that before. Even a day later the bottom crust is still flaky after sitting under the weight of six apples all night. I was shocked, I nearly cried.

There wasn't a pie that came out yesterday without the sizzle/whump - all of us were transformed. Eric was the adventurer and made the sole lattice crust. He told me later that indeed, it was a very good pie.

I'm ready to make another.

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