On Sunday, I was lucky enough to be invited to help judge a pie baking contest at the Divisadero Farmers Market. Today I've got some pics from the event for you -- plus the winning recipe!
Perhaps because of the weather, there were only seven pies entered in this year's contest -- about half of last year's tally. In theory this should have made judging easier, but all seven submissions were stellar, so picking a winner was no simple task.
The event was run by Demetrias from the Divisadero Farmers' Market (pictured at right, in yellow shirt). My fellow judges were Charles Nelson from NOPNA, Jeremy Pollock from Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi's office, and Ellyn Parker from the Mayor's Office of Economic Workforce and Development, as well as Chronicle columnist Leah Garchik, and Morgan Fitzgibbons from the Wigg Party (both of whom somehow avoided my camera here).
We were tasked with sampling each pie and scoring them in four categories: appearance, taste, texture, and originality.
It's not just the sugar talking when I say that every pie was gorgeous both visually and tastebudly. For example, check out this "Apple Tartine Tart":
Or how about this picture-perfect "Eden" pie?
And what about this amazing Rustic Pie? Here's the "before" shot...
...And the after:
Just incredible.
After all the pies were sampled, the votes were tallied and a winner was announced. I'm pretty sure this is a photo of Demetrias announcing the winner, but at this point my eyes were basically secreting glucose so it's all a bit hazy.
And the winner was.... drumroll please....
This beauty right here!
A "Brown Butter Apple Pie" from chef Leigh Loper.
Leigh took home a prize of $50 in Carrot Cash which is good at the Farmers' Market, plus a healthy dose of glory. Check out how overjoyed Leigh is to cradle the remains of her winning creation:
That's euphoria right there, plain and simple!
If you want to check out Leigh's recipe for this delicious dish, we've posted it here (in PDF form).
Thanks to the organizers, fellow judges, and contestants for making this an amazing way to spend an hour on a sunny Sunday, and for rendering me incapacitated for the remainder of the afternoon. It was definitely worth it.
