Gramercy Tavern的闭门饼竞赛是电视上最强烈的表演
It’s two in the afternoon on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and lunch atGramercy Tavern-Danny Meyer的标志性的美国餐厅 - 是冰狼汉堡和牡蛎在冰上的稳定嗡嗡声。然而在一个小型，安静的房间朝向后面，十八张馅饼覆盖着一张长厚的木桌子。在桌子后面，一个法官面板逐一解剖每个馅饼。
卡拉厅, television personality and chef, says she’d want fish with the parsnip pie.Nicole Rucker，饼图专家和作者Dappled: Baking Recipes for Fruit Lovers, questions the seasonality of a blueberry pie.Rose Levy Beranbaum谁在烘焙上写了11本书，翻了一遍巧克力棋馅饼，以确定外壳是否烘烤。这是一家纽约市餐厅的内部馅饼竞赛，但它真正的烘焙术。情绪是电动带有张力的电动，赌注是潜在的职业变化：赢得派来的馅饼将在Gramercy Tavern的菜单上出现。
“We all work toward that in our industry,” saidMiro Uskokovic.，Gramercy Tavern's Pastry Chef和比赛背后的大师。这一切都在七年前开始，当时uskokovic正在寻找一种在最繁忙的赛季中将假日精神带到餐馆的员工。第一个快速地聚集在一起。只有几件馅饼，没有任何外部法官。但是，在乌斯克科维奇决定再次举行竞赛的家庭用餐中，每个人都有一些特别的人。
“I felt like every year got a little bit bigger with more pies, more excitement, more judges,” Uskokovic said. In addition to Carla, Nicole, and Rose, this year’s judges includedMichael Anthony, Gramercy Tavern’s Executive Chef and a 2002Food & Wine Best New Chef;food writerJordana Rothman;厨师和食品作家vwin德赢ac米兰Jake Cohen, television personality Zac Young, and Rose Levy Beranbaum’s assistant, Woody Wolston.
For the first time, Uskokovic opened this year’s contest to “the public,” or a select group of friends, regulars, and influences. Yet the event was still held behind closed doors—and Uskokovic wants it to stay that way.
While the fifteen or twenty audience members sipped on glasses of wine and snapped photos for Instagram, each contestant came into the room to present their pie. The judges asked questions, gave feedback, then rated each pie on a scale of one to ten. The room erupted in actual oohs and aahs whenever something controversial happened—like a judge making a snarky comment or bestowing the honor of a perfect score.
There were the traditionalist pies: caramel apple, sweet potato. There were the experimental pies: pumpkin flan, spicy s’mores. And then there were the pies that the judges couldn’t stop eating: peanut butter and jelly, chocolate Kahlua pudding. But there could only be one winner, and the grand prize went to a coconut and pandan pie with lemongrass whipped cream made by Lauren Tran, a pastry production cook.
虽然没有赢得本次比赛的公式，但克服了最高标志的奶油馅饼。“每个人都总是想制作苹果派和山核桃馅饼，”Uskokovic说，“但是当你呈现香蕉奶油或巧克力奶油馅饼时，每个人都会去Bananas。”
For two weeks leading up to the pie-off, Uskokovic goes around the restaurant encouraging staff members to participate. Anyone who works at Gramercy Tavern can enter so long as they don’t have a hand in creating the menu. The trickiest part for Uskokovic is convincing people to actually do it. “They all feel like they can’t bake, and I’m like, please make it happen. If you can’t make a pie crust, make a cookie crust,” he said.
Everyone always assumes that the pastry team will win over the judges, but that isn’t true. The winter squash pie on the menu right now came from a server who won the competition last year. The 2014 winner, a buttermilk coconut pie, was made by one of the savory cooks.
Once all eighteen pies were tasted and rated, the audience members lined up to snag slices for themselves. And in trueUnion Square Hospitality Groupfashion, Uskokovic was already thinking about how to improve the audience experience for next year, starting with asking contestants to make an additional pie.
“我觉得观众不得不坐下来观看法官吃馅饼，”他说。“明年，每个人都会有机会在法官那里同时品尝。”