Good Food Pie Contest

I have 2 words for you: Free Pie! That’s right, anyone who goes to the The Good Food Pie Contest gets to try samples of the competing pies.

Wait, I started at the end. Let me back up. The Good Food Pie Contest is an annual community event that brings together professional bakers, food bloggers, and home bakers to compete in five different categories; cream (chiffon or mousse), fruit, nut, savory, and new this year, the Time Burton inspired pie.

This year’s contest will be at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. Each pie will be cut and served for the panel of celebrity judges who include Pulitzer Prize winning food writer Jonathon Gold, Food Network personality Aida Mollenkamp, and Chef Jet Lee.

Once they try the pies then it’s your turn. There are more than 200 pies competing this year and you can attempt to try them all.

Last year, I entered 2 pies that were both gluten-free. The first was a mixed berry and cherry pie on an almond crust, pictured on the right. The second was a tres leches pie with a flour-less cookie crust. Neither pie won a ribbon unfortunately (but a celebrity chef said she liked my cookie crust).

So this year, I decided to enter just one pie and it’s a combination of the best parts of both of last year’s pies. A tres leches pie on an almond crust with a layer of dulce de leche and a layer of vanilla cream filling. There will be some kind of whipped cream, but I haven’t figured that out yet.

Even if you aren’t entering a pie this year, it sounds like it will be a fun family event. At 12:30 p.m. families can do a pie-inspired art project as part of LACMA’s family Sundays. And follow that up by watching an apron fashion show from 2 to 2:30. At 2, the judges will start judging the pies for the public and at 3 p.m. the pies will be served.

The pie contest is free, but entry to LACMA’s galleries are not. But if you wear an apron you get free general admission (which doesn’t include the Time Burton exhibit).

If you don’t get enough pie at the contest, check out the Good Food Pie-a-Day blog.