SF Food Wars

(From left to right: Nalatie Galatzer, Krystin Rubin, Tamara Palmer, Rachel Cole)

At first thought, the life of a Pie or Die judge might seem fortunate, envy-worthy, perhaps an overall walk-in-the-park dream. Don’t be so hasty to judge these judges! Carefully tasting, analyzing, and choosing among 20 of the Bay Area’s top-notch, freshest, seasonally-driven, and most creative pies is no easy task. While our pie-savvy attendees cast their votes for the People’s Choice prizes, we’ll leave it to our panel of pie experts to determine 1st, 2nd, and 3rd!

Natalie “Muscles” Galatzer rides her bike around town and delivers pies for her business, Bike Basket Pies. Last year Daily Candy readers voted her San Francisco’s Sweetest Thing in Food. She battles evil unicorns with her flaky, buttery, delicious pie crust and saves good unicorns.

Krystin Rubin is a proud New Jersey native and co-owner of Mission Pie. A baker by trade, two-time bakery owner and one-time farm worker, Krystin also enjoys reading, walking around and having a nice dinner. Since Mission Pie rolls out many thousands of pies a year, Krystin is always glad to try someone else’s pie.

Tamara Palmer is our indispensable veteran judge who has braved the challenge of every SF Food Wars battle to date…and pie is definitely no exception. You’ve read Tamara’s clever food-inspired words all up over and around SF Weekly’s SFoodie section. She’s a bona fide expert in San Francisco’s street food scene, as well as a published book author and bad ass DJ.

Rachel Cole is the Community Engagement Director for Hodo Soy Beanery in Oakland, CA and was previously the Program Director of local non-profit 18 Reasons. The common ingredient in all of her experiences is her quest to find ways to deepen our connection to food. In pursuit of that goal, she’s dug potatoes as an apprentice on an organic farm; learned how to make quinoa sexy with cookbook author and blogger Heidi Swanson; planned exciting educational programs for CUESA; and created Edible San Francisco Magazine’s Edible Pursuit trivia night series. She may not have met her prince charming yet, but she is certain that one day there will be pie, not cake, at her wedding.

You’ve got the classics with berries, custards, and pecans. Ahh the classics. But then you have beets, bacon, and tapioca balls too…uh…um, perhaps these are the new classics? You’ll have to decide for yourself on 7/25! Read each of our 20 Pie or Die Teams’ Pie names and descriptions below:

Team # / Team Name / Pie Name / Pie Description

1. Peace O’ Pie / Sour Cherry Sweet Berry Pie / “Indulge in the fruits of summer with this tart and sweet ruby red berry pie with a flaky, crispy crust.”
2. PieTisserie / Borscht Pie / “Whether you love beets or hate them, our Borscht Pie casts this ruddy root vegetable in a whole new light. Finally, beets reveal their sweeter, smoother side.”
3. The Pie Peddler & The Cherry Kid / Upside Down Pecan Pie / “Imagine if you will, a buttery crumbly topping flipped to caress a caramelie pecan pie goo with hints of honey, then drizzled with dark chocolate.”
4. Pretty in Pie / Apple Huckleberry Pie / “An updated classic- all-butter flaky crust meets cinnamon-laced apple filling dotted with tart huckleberries from our family’s farm in Oregon. The pie is topped with a crumble crust for crunch.”
5. The Menagerie of Pie / July Flame / “The peaches are ripe, on the verge of collapse. Rhubarb gives it edge, tapioca keeps it together. Butter crust holds it in and lets it travel. And it all tastes damn good.”
6. Team Rolling Thunder / Grama’s ‘Go-To’ Pie / “A spicy, dense custard pie with sour cream and butter from a local, sustainable, cruelty free source–some of our best friends are lactating cows! Delicately macerated dried fruit, nuts, fresh eggs from happy chickens that frolic in our backyard, meringue on top, and the flakiest scratch crust in the free world.”
7. Miss Lady Em / Afternoon Raspberry Tea Pie / “An earl grey shortbread cookie crust filled with raspberries dancing in a smooth lemon-raspberry compote, topped with a dollop of delicious Devonshire cream. Best enjoyed with pinkies up!”
8. The Sugar Lumps / Super Fierce Pecan Buttermilk Pie / “Creamy buttermilk custard studded with toasted pecans, with a hint of lemon and chocolate, in a delightful cookie crumb crust.”
9. Ooh La La Ladies / Ooh La La Olallieberry Pie / “Our pies consist of hand picked olallieberries sourced from local farms, nestled between flaky layers of all-butter pastry, topped with turbinado sugar. Growing up in Cambria, CA, Ooh La La Lady Kami learned the secrets of her mother’s famous olallieberry pies.”
10. Eat the Love / Check(mate) Please! Lemon Chess Pie / “Backyard home-grown lemons and local blackberries update this Southern classic chess pie with a California twist. Almond scented crust adds a contemporary touch, while a drizzle of berry sauce made with a touch of San Francisco honey adds homey complexity.”
11. BOO Blue Monsters / Blue Monster Pie / “Blue Monster Crust (blueberry-peanut butter oatmeal) with a thin schmear of sweet organic blueberry jam, topped with a layer of tart blueberry cream cheese filling, and a fresh mixed berry infused whipped cream.”
12. MaliNumNum Treats / Porky-Pecanutty Pie Perfection / “A Bacon and pecan pie baked in a bacon crusted crust. Did we say bacon?”
13. Gypsycab / I Wanna Hold Your Hand (pie) / ” These little hand pies on the go boast a buttery, flaky pie crust with a bourbon-peach filling.”
14. Gretchen’s All-American Fruit Scoops / Delectable & Fruit-tastic Strawberry Pear Pie / “If “American Pie” had featured this little morsel it would have snogged all the boys and the girls by the end of the film! Juicy pear and sweet strawberries team up with a rich, flakey crust to give your senses an evening they won’t forget. (And the extra pinch of flavor has gotten it banned from band camp more than once!)”
15. Gleeks / Rachel Berry Pie / “Bite-sized almond custard pies loaded with mixed berries, topped with honey sweetened whipped cream and shaved almonds.”
16. Black Jet Baking Co. / Black Jet’s Apricot Blackberry Pilot / “Imagine the best local apricots and blackberries in the flakiest most badass crust in town.”
17. Happy Endings! / Lemon-Blueberry Buttermilk Pie / “Southern style, custard-like pie made with fresh organic buttermilk, summer fruit, and creme fraiche. Go south and let your mouth enjoy a luscious lemony custard followed by a burst of blueberry goodness. Truly a sex in the mouth moment.”
18. Pie Love Baking / Summer Love Peach Pie / “Sweet, organic summer peaches in a rosemary, all-butter crust, served with creme fraiche goodness.”
19. Quittin’ Time / Hannah Banana Creme Pie / “Fresh bananas and rich, silky custard in a chocolate cookie crust, topped with homemade whipped cream.”
20. Ready, Willing, and Mable / Sweet Little Pucker / “Pie so tasty you’ll be convinced you’ve been transported to an island paradise. Lemons, rhubarb, plum, lime and ginger will amp your taste buds into an erotic and exotic frenzy.”

A teensy disc of flatbread bears the load of tons (I said tons, people!) of flavor, creating the perfect “Bite of Smokey Porky Love.” This is the case for double winner Team Good Foods Catering, who scooped up Judges’ 1st Place and People’s Choice Honorable Mention.

As we all know, it’s a free country and you can use whatever bacon and tomato jam you like, but make sure to get your hooves on Good Foods’ brand bacon and jam to replicate this flavor punch-packing
“micro BLT” to a T. (T is for tasty.) Continue reading for recipe…

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Team Memmalicious was dill-ited to win the judges’ over with their 2nd place-winning Salmon Dill-ites, bite-sized towers of crispy hash browns, smoked salmon, a lil’ preserved meyer lemon, and dill creme fraiche. Don’t dill-ay and get dill-igent in making these dill-icious eats for your next dill-ectable brunch get together! Continue reading for recipe…
Continue reading »

(Check out ALL the photos at SF Food Wars’ Flickr page!)

Mimosas were had. And how. Surely the Bay to Breakers crowd had a few, but they totally missed out on Amuse Brunch! Their loss. Seriously, these miniature brunch creations speak for themselves:

Continue reading »

People’s Choice:
Team #9 : Porkuporkia : “Pork in the Hole / Slow braised”
(Slow braised pork belly tucked in a maple glazed donut hole)

People’s Choice Honorable Mention:
Team #6 : Good Foods Caters : “The Bite of Smokey Porky Love”
(A griddled micro wheat bun with a smokey tomato jam, sliced cherry tomato, pork crackling aioil, good foods house made bacon, and micro intensity greens)

Judges’ 1st Place:
Team #6 : Good Foods Caters : “The Bite of Smokey Porky Love”
(A griddled micro wheat bun with a smokey tomato jam, sliced cherry tomato, pork crackling aioil, good foods house made bacon, and micro intensity greens)

Judges’ 2nd Place:
Team #11 : Memmalicious : “Salmon Dill-ites”
(Crispy hashbrown rounds topped with smoked salmon and dill creme fraiche)

Judges’ 3rd Place:
Team #16 : Team TimeCube : “One Shot Waffle”
(Pure essence of waffles distilled into a liquid, with extra notes of bacon and strawberries, topped off with a maple syrup foam)

Photog’s Choice:
Team #16 : Team TimeCube : “One Shot Waffle”
(Pure essence of waffles distilled into a liquid, with extra notes of bacon and strawberries, topped off with a maple syrup foam)

Our insanely generous local prize sponsors have done it again! Aside from the always coveted bragging rights, check out all the awesome, fantastic, cool, wonderful, exciting, educational, fun, and brunch-worthy prizes our 20 Amuse Brunch competitors will be contending for:

People’s Choice:
$100 cash, Brunch for 2 at Serpentine, $35 at Tartine Bakery, 1/2 Keg of any Thirsty Bear Brewery Craft Beer, Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook c/o Chronicle Books, Top Chef: The Quickfire Challenge Game c/o Chronicle Books, The Finest Wines of Champagne c/o UC Press, Method Miracle Kit, Batter Bakery Shortbread

People’s Choice Honorable Mention:
1 year membership at 18 Reasons, $25 at Omnivore Books, Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook c/o Chronicle Books, Top Chef: The Quickfire Challenge Game c/o Chronicle Books, The Finest Wines of Champagne c/o UC Press, Method Miracle Kit, Batter Bakery Shortbread

Photog’s Choice:
$50 at Photojojo, Method Miracle Kit, Batter Bakery Shortbread

Judges’ 1st Place:
$100 cash, Brunch for 2 at Slow Club, Hikari Backpack c/o Alite Designs, Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook c/o Chronicle Books, Top Chef: The Quickfire Challenge Game c/o Chronicle Books, The Finest Wines of Champagne c/o UC Press, Method Miracle Kit, Batter Bakery Shortbread

Judges’ 2nd Place:
$50 at Bi-Rite Market, Hikari Backpack c/o Alite Designs, Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook c/o Chronicle Books, Top Chef: The Quickfire Challenge Game c/o Chronicle Books, The Finest Wines of Champagne c/o UC Press, Method Miracle Kit, Batter Bakery Shortbread

Judges’ 3rd Place:
Hikari Backpack c/o Alite Designs, Box of Confections c/o Bridge Brands, Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook c/o Chronicle Books, Top Chef: The Quickfire Challenge Game c/o Chronicle Books, The Finest Wines of Champagne c/o UC Press, Method Miracle Kit, Batter Bakery Shortbread

(left to right: Tamara Palmer, Jill Santopietro, Karen Armstrong)

As always, we’ve assembled a dream-team of discerning palates, brilliant minds, and just wills. They will take on the utmost challenging task of determining which tiny brunch is most worth the munch!

Jill Santopietro is the Senior Food Editor of CHOW.com and is currently finalizing her thesis on anchovies to complete a master’s degree in gastronomy from Boston University. Her far-reaching experience as a recipe writer and tester, chef, food stylist, educator, and journalist at The New York Times and The Boston Globe…(whew!)…definitely means she is no stranger to brunch! Check out “Kitchen 4B” (formerly “Tiny Kitchen”), a popular cooking show she co-produced for NYTimes.com.

You’ve probably seen Karen Armstrong (a.k.a. “Cashew”) happily working away at Bi-Rite Market in the Mission, where her passion for seasonal produce is perfectly placed. She’s also very active in some of SF’s most exciting food-related non-profits like 18 Reasons and Sunday Streets. A Texan by birth, New Yorker by heart, and San Franciscan in the works, Karen has literally brunched her way across the country and has a soft spot for all things guacamole-related.

Tamara Palmer is our indispensable veteran judge who has braved the challenge of every SF Food Wars battle to date…and brunch is definitely no exception. You’ve read Tamara’s clever food-inspired words all up over and around SF Weekly’s SFoodie section. She’s a bona fide expert in San Francisco’s street food scene, as well as a published book author and bad ass DJ.

1. Upon Arrival: Some of you love getting there early to line up and be the first ones in. That’s great! For those who prefer to strut over closer to go-time, don’t worry. The limited amount of tickets means non-sardine tin environments and enough food stuffs to go around. Also, we love it when you have your IDs ready. YEAH!

2. Tasting the 20: Tasting, remembering, and comparing 20 of anything is no easy task! Be organized and write the corresponding team number of each treat on your plate around the perimeter. You’ll be glad you did. GTD!

3. Vote Hard: Your vote truly counts! Take advantage of the back of your ballot to make notes if it helps your process. Remember, you get one (1) vote! Slip it in the ballot box as soon as you know which dish is “the one.” DO IT!

4. Get Results: The end is chock-full of info you want to know, especially the announcements of 6 winners and 1st deets on upcoming events. NICE!