Gloomy skies and intermittent downpours didn’t stop 50 or so people from turning up at the Slow Food Miami picnic Saturday at the Barnacle. It was pretty ugly out there but we managed to make it to the park’s pavilion completely dry, as did the nine pies entered into the pie baking contest. With names such as Stolen From My Neighbor’s Yard and She Took Off With Jose And Left Me With Cuervo, the pies were the highlight of the afternoon.
Chef Kris Wessel of Red Light and Club Med executive chef Erik Peters judged the contestants’ pies along with Trina Sargalski of Miami Dish, Wine News editor, Elizabeth Smith, and Wirth Munroe, great grandson of Ralph Middleton Monroe – the man who built and lived at the Barnacle at the turn of the century. Bonus points were awarded to pies using local ingredients and creative fillings. While the judges deliberated, everyone had a chance to grab a bite of the contestants’ creations.
Francis Brown and Alex Arencibia took first prize with their Summer Bounty pie. This pie’s filling was made with avocado, mangoes and lemongrass; its crust was dotted with basil. I would’ve never thought of avocado as sweet filling for pie but it worked. Second place went to the Eat it Raw Mango pie, a raw pie prepared by Hunter Reno with local berries and mangoes from her yard and shaved coconut from Glaser Organic Farms. The Oh Passion pie, which had a passion fruit filling, took third place. I didn’t get a taste of this one as there was none left when I went by but I heard rave reviews from those who did.
My friends and I were among the last ones to leave as we were having a good time listening to the sounds of Palo!. It was a really nice time. And the pies, well, they were a delicious bonus.
For information on upcoming events, check Slow Food Miami’s website.
*Updates: The pie contest from a judge’s perspective. Clarified that Eat it Raw pie was submitted by Hunter Reno, only the coconut was from Glaser Farms.
