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Business & Tech

Farmers' Market Pie Contest Pleases Judges' Palates

A Morton Grove man finished first as local amateur bakers competed with 10 sets of pies tasted by Mayor Dan Staackmann and five other judges.

Morton Grove’s Mike Johnson remembered the cooking fundamentals his mother taught him when he was young. He could take care of himself around the kitchen.

But pie-baking came late in the game. Johnson didn’t begin that part of the craft until a decade ago.

“I just use good ingredients,” said Johnson. “The preparation takes a half hour and the baking an hour.”

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His style came out on top in the pie contest, highlight of the Harvest Fest theme of Saturday’s . Six judges, including Morton Grove Mayor Dan Staackmann and State Rep. Daniel Biss, sampled 10 different sets of pies, one for tasting and the other for appearance. Johnson’s two apple pies came in first.

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Each judge rated the pie on a one to five scale for its overall presentation along with taste, crust and filling.

The pie contest was a first in several ways – as a feature of the Farmer’s Market, as competition for the bakers and as a judging platform for the majority of those who enabled Johnson to come out on top.

Idea came from pie-making program at library

Contest organizer Laura Frisch got the idea from a two-hour demonstration on pie-making at the .

“There was a huge turnout,” Frisch said.

Pies, rather than some other food-group representative, were chose because they had ingredients sold at the Farmer’s Market, in this case filings. Also, an item was needed that did not require refrigeration.

Entrants included five apple pies, one apple pie with cinnamon sugar sauce, three apple streusels, lone honey peach and a rosy cranapple.

Judges were given cups of water to clear the palates of the sticky, sweet samples. In addition to Staackman and Biss, they included Bill Zimmer, a volunteer at the , which  benefited from proceeds of pie sales; Dana Kruger of Sweety Pies, a Skokie bakery; professional chef Lancy Norris, Zimmer’s daughter-in-law, and Ron Kaplan, billed as “Local Foodie/Epicure.”

Mayor rates ‘em pretty even

Staackman had judged pies before at Morton Grove special events. He seemed easily satisfied by all entries.

“All are four-and-a-half’s,” he said of rating the 10 samples. “My judging was all within one point.”

The judges figured to have a hard time stopping at just one sample of each pie.

So would Zimmer get full at eight samples?

“No, I’m good for 12 or 13,” he said.

“When I make a commitment, I make a commitment,” Biss said.

Norris specialized in organic cooking. “Sure, you can make an organic pie,” she said.

“I like a lot of fresh ingredients,” said pie pro Kruger. “You can be creative, but classics are good, too.”

Finishing second was Mary Kay Hoffman’s apple streusel. Third-place finisher was Hana Ari Frisch’s rosy cran-apple.

The pie contest dodged rain that put a damper on other planned Harvest Fest events. But a few minutes after Frisch removed a canopy above the judges as they finished their tasting, the skies opened up.

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