Pie Day!

November 2, 2025 • 12:30 pm

No, yesterday wasn’t the “official” Pi Day (March 14), but slap an “e” on the end and you have something better: Hyde Park’s annual “South Side Pie Challenge.”  Entrants submit two copies of what they think is their best pie, and judges taste them all in the morning. (I want to know how I get to be a judge!)  After the morning’s appraisal and awarding of distinctions to bakers, the pies are put out on a big table, with the public let in to buy slices.

There were well over a hundred pies on tap, with two copies of each. The winners were labeled, so if you wanted you could choose only those (it’s $5 a slice, with the profits going to hunger program charities).  But my tastes were also conditioned by the look of the pies, and I anted up $20 for four slices. I brought a container to carry them back to the office, intending to consume one on the spot and then one for breakfast over the next three days. I have always maintained that pie is one of the best breakfast foods available in America.

And here’s what you’re confronted with when you go into the school where the pies were set out:

The tables are divided up by type of pie (“nut pies”, “fruit pies”, “cream pies,” “pumpkin and squash pies”, etc.) What largesse! Below are nut pies (each one said “contains nuts” on the label):

This year meringue pies were not allowed, probably because they contain uncooked egg white. What a pity. . .

The first slice I ate, when I got back to the lab, was this beauty. I thought it was chocolate cream pie, but the thick layer of thick, luscious chocolate on top hid a layer of real pistachio cream below. The crust was fancy and full of butter (as a crust should be), and I have to say that this was among the best pies I’ve ever eaten. You can see the pistachio at about 11 o’clock below. The crust was a dessert in itself.

This morning I had a slice of blueberry pie, which is perfect for a morning pie as it wasn’t too sweet. It was of course washed down with my customary latte. It too was fantastic:

I have two slices left: a coffee cream pie and a Key lime pie (I hope they used real Key limes).  I was one of the first in the door, as I wanted the best selection (pies have only a finite number of slices). After I grabbed my four choices, I scuttled away with my prize, and by that time the line was out the door.

20 thoughts on “Pie Day!”

  1. Looks fabulous. I have never cared for meringue pie, but out of sympathy for those that do, I will mourn a bit. Fruit pie for breskfast sounds delicious.

  2. Pecan pie would be among my choices, along with key lime, blueberry, and I am not sure what else. Would cheesecake does count as pie?

    1. Cheesecake counts as a cake, not a pie, because it has ‘cake’ in the name. I must insist upon this.

      I like pecan too, though I wouldn’t have minded trying another kind of nut pie, in the unlikely event there were any. Big Pecan seems to have cornered the pie market.

  3. That is my kind of event. Eat pie for a cause. Any pie will do. Banana cream pie is one of my favorites. I wonder which pie won.

  5. That looks and sounds amazingly delicious. The chocolate and pistachio pie makes me wonder if it was a “Dubai chocolate” pie: the fairly viral craze about chocolate, pistachio, and tahini. Sounds amazing and I’d love to try a pie like that.

  6. Those look absolutely delicious–especially the chocolate/pistachio pie. My mouth is watering.

  7. Fruit pies and chocolate/any kind of cream pies are different food groups, helpfully identified by presence or absence of a top crust. For a balanced diet you need a slice of each. At breakfast. Certainly. For all you know the world might end during the day.

        1. Standard fare in New England. (“Apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze.”)

  10. That’s a lot of pie! The last time I saw that many pies was watching The Three Stooges. They knew pie!

  11. Wow. So many pies…so little time. I recall you showed us this event a few years ago. What great idea! Everybody wins: the top-rated bakers; the Hyde Park/Kenwood Hunger programs; and, of course, the lucky buyers taste buds! They all look great, but I would put my first fiver on what looks to be a deep dish apple pie on the fruit pie table. If apple and blueberry muffins are breakfast, then sure, why not apple or blueberry pie? “Pie: it’s not just for dessert anymore”

  12. They all look completely delicious. But they’re all what you might call dessert pies. Are savoury pies eaten in the US? Many of us from the UK can’t do without our steak & kidney, chicken & leek, or pork pies.

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