Pie Fidelity - A Pie Premiere

After writing about Nicole Rucker's Kickstarter film project back in March of 2013 , the eagerly awaited Pie Fidelity premiered last night at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax. It was a celebration of both the great American road trip ... and the great American favorite - Pie.

After cleaning up in the KCRW Pie contest, Rucker set out with her director, Casey O'Brien and their crew to try pies and meet their makers along the way to Orlando, Florida to compete in the 2013 National Pie Contest. Rucker thanked all from the Gjelina group (where she is the house baker), by saying, "Exploration is the name of the game - no matter what." O'Brien simply introduced the film by saying, "She's really good at making pies, so we made a movie about it." There you have it.

The film couldn't be more charming. As Rucker says when she arrives in Florida, "I was visually assaulted by a level of Americana I'd never seen." The same could be said for the film, which spotlights all the very best things about that America ... old fashioned skills, farm fresh ingredients, beautiful land, the open road, and the biggest hearts of the biggest characters.

"I like characters," says Rucker in the film (I do too!), and it shows. The folks they encounter along the way, from Venice to Orlando, are lovingly portrayed in all their down-home glory. The "Pie stops" along the way include Pie Town, New Mexico, where there were no pies to buy until Kathy Knapp moved to town and opened up shop. There her many satisfied customers experience "Piegasms", oohing and aahing over her delectable creations. I'm going there.

Rucker Ranch in Oklahoma was the next stop, at the home of Blaine Rucker's (Nicole's husband) relatives. There they enjoy home-made pies and wisdom shared ... "Always say thank you, I love you, and I'm sorry."

On they travel to the Arbuckle Mountains in Oklahoma, home of The Original Fried Pie Shop. Fried. Pies. That's really all you need to know. Throughout the film, the various characters are gorgeously photographed in a series of stills that are so wonderful, they really demand their own coffee table book or something (with recipes, please!).

A stop in Texas to visit a friend's Grandma Jodie is a joy, and then it's on to Louisiana, where they get to sample the wares at Strawn's Eat Shop in Shreveport, where "It's like being at Grandma's house." Which I think is the appeal of pie. Childhood memories, simple pleasures, someone baking something from scratch with nothing but love. That's why I love to make (and eat) pies, and I certainly got that from my Grandma Olson. I'm also going to Strawn's.

The final pie stop in this adventure was perhaps the coolest. and the one Rucker herself was most anticipating a visit to - the Pie Lab in Greensboro, Alabama. "They put a modern take on what we're doing.", said Rucker. Wow. They have single-handedly (together) transformed the Mom and Pop Main street in Greensboro to once again be a thriving center of the community, where their philosophy states, "Pie + Conversation = Social Change." Awesome. I'm for SURE going there.

From there, they high-tail it to Orlando for Rucker to compete in the "Perfect Pie" category in the National Pie Contest. When her absolute perfection of a four-apple-combo apple pie comes out of the oven, the Silent Movie Theater audience audibly moaned and gasped ... if only it were in Smell-A-Vision!

The National Contest is hilarious. Young ladies in pie costumes, red, white and blue bunting everywhere, the Pillsbury Doughboy as a host ... it really is an explosion of Americana. It's highly amusing to watch the Ruckers take it all in, and exceptionally awesome when - SPOILER ALERT - Rucker takes home the blue ribbon.

The theater erupted in applause and cheers at that foregone conclusion, and after distributing the pies won in the evening's raffle (donated by fancy chefs about town like Evan Kleiman, whose apple I got to taste, and it was flawless), it was time to EAT PIE in the courtyard pie after-party.

The entire evening was delicious, and so heart-warming. The simple delight of a piece of pie with friends ... enjoyed all across America.

Pie Fidelity is a triumph of pie, fun, and friendship. There could be a full-length documentary on any one of the characters involved. Like all the best movies. and all the best pies ... it leaves you wanting more. Many thanks to all involved for taking us along on this absolute treat of a trip, and sharing all that love. And pie.

MLK Day In Venice

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is one of my favorite holidays ... and one of the most deserving people we've ever had to be commemorated with a "Day" of their own. Venice got into it down at the graffiti walls ...

And inspired me to do an MLK tag of my own - on a sweet potato pie.

The day was spent laughing with friends, celebrating freedom, equality and peace - and lots of good food. Just like all the very best holidays.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Pie Fidelity with Gjelina's Nicole Mournian

Nicole Mournian is a complete treat of a lady, which makes complete sense, as she is the creator of some of the best treats life has to offer. Namely, Pie. She is the masterful baker at Gjelina, and she's about to hit the road to the National Pie Contest in Florida on a mission she has dubbed "Pie Fidelity."

She embarks on this adventure confidently, having won (pretty much sweeping) the KCRW Pie Contest last fall, with Best In Show, Best Savory Pie, Best Fruit Pie and Best Crust ribbons all going home with Mournian. Now, I'm a pie maker myself, so I can rest you assured that Mournian's creations are the absolute top of the heap. Like, I'm intimidated. But mostly inspired.

Especially when she makes it all so fun. The trip to the National Pie Contest will be about winning (Mournian claims to be very competitive, but I've only ever seen pure sweetness) the whole thing, for sure, but it's also about the journey. She and co-worker/filmmaker, Casey O'Brien, will be road tripping all along the "Southern Pie Belt", interviewing and making pies with down-home bakers across the country, creating an oral history documentary of real pie in America. Pie Fidelity. I'm so jealous.

Mournian's own journey began growing up in San Diego, in a family that wasn't really too big on baking (dessert was often store-bought strawberry shortcakes). She went to the San Francisco Art Institute for photography, and while shooting a bunch of food for a project, she realized that she had a better time making the food. When she graduated, all the other students received cameras for their big gift ... Mournian got a KitchenAid mixer. Clearly, others were supportive of her talents.

She started lying about her kitchen experience and making up references to get jobs in kitchens where she could really learn her craft. She worked at Influx in San Diego, where she learned a ton, then moved up to L.A. and worked at Fresh in Culver City, then headed over to learn coffee at Intelligentsia on Abbot Kinney here in Venice. While working at Intel, Mournian met and became friends with Travis Lett, Chef at Gjelina. He offered her a job and she moved down the street to become "General Manager & Baker" for Gjelina, where she now blows minds daily with her perfect concoctions (like the cacao/avocado mousse she gave me to try while we were chatting ... oh my GOODNESS!).

Encouraged by Lett and the team at Gjelina, Mournian entered the KCRW contest the first time, and lost. Didn't even get an honorable mention. Competitive streak kicking in, she spent the next year researching and perfecting her recipes and crust. The day of the contest last year, she got stuck in L.A. traffic and got her pies entered just three minutes to the deadline, the last person to enter. All the other entrants must be bummed that the traffic wasn't a bit worse, as Mournian's savory pie (pork belly!) and fruit pie (blueberry/blackberry) took home all the top prizes. The famous Chef judges were baffled by her crust, and were offering her jobs on the spot. Gjelina knows what they have in Mournian, however, and everyone is all the way behind her as she heads off for the big National Contest in Florida.

But we have to help her get there! Please kick in on her Kickstarter page to help fund their great pie adventure, and celebrate all the bakers that make our country so rich in tradition and deliciousness.

Please go NOW (there are only 4 days left to contribute!) to Nicole's Pie Fidelity page:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/piefidelity/pie-fidelity

... and contribute what you can to make this high in the sky apple pie hope come to fruition! I heard about the whole story on Pi Day (March 14/3.14, get it?), where Mournian was just taking the strawberry/rhubarb pies out of the oven, after getting back from judging Google's campus pie contest. There did not appear to be any real threat to the National crown over there, so we can send our Venice team off to the National contest on April 28th, feeling great about their chances.

Go Nicole! Go Casey! Go Pie Fidelity! Mmmmmm ... Pie.