The pies in the film “Waitress” may look delicious, but much of what you see is Hollywood smoke and mirrors.
During the 30 days of shooting, two “pie wranglers” and a “pie mistress” made 250 pies — everything from cherry pie to spaghetti pie to Mermaid Marshmallow Pie, whatever that is.
The late Adrienne Shelly, who wrote, directed and acted in the film currently in theaters, was not a baker herself, but she knew pie.
“Adrienne was more of a pie eater than a pie baker,” said Michael Roiff, the film’s producer. “But she invented all these fantasy pies. I think that she even had a vision for the impossible pies like Lonely Chicago Pie and Car Radio Pie. I would like to have seen those.”
In the film, Jenna (Keri Russell) is a pregnant diner waitress, squirreling away money to enter a pie contest so she can take the $25,000 prize money and leave her jealous, overbearing husband, Earl. Meanwhile she bakes and waits tables at Joe’s Pie Diner and listens to diner owner Old Joe (Andy Griffith) spout his curmudgeonly wisdom. Jenna finds contentment in the crimp, flake and sweet fruit of the pie kitchen.
She dreams up pies with unusal names:
— I Don’t Want Earl’s Baby Pie: quiche with brie, smoked ham.
— I Hate My Husband Pie: “Bittersweet chocolate and don’t sweeten it.”
— Baby Screaming Its Head Off in the Middle of the Night and Ruining My Life Pie: New York style cheesecake, brandy-brushed pecans and nutmeg.
— Earl Murders Me Because I’m Having an Affair Pie: black-berries and raspberries smashed into a chocolate crust
— I Can’t Have No Affair Because It’s Wrong and I Don’t Want Earl to Kill Me Pie: “Vanilla custard with banana. Hold the banana.”
— Pregnant Miserable Self-Pitying Loser Pie: lumpy oatmeal with fruitcake mashed in “flambe, of course …”
Pie wranglers Erin Eagleton, a freelance production designer, and his assistant Sarah Osborne ran the props department, which quickly became the pie department; Osborne served as Russell’s crimping hand double.
The wranglers worked 20-hour days, shopping in L.A., baking crusts at home, prepping pies for travel, baking more pies on set in a portable camp oven and touching them up with a propane torch.
“It was so many pies,” said Eagleton on the phone from California. “And the funny thing is that I’m not much of a pie fan, and Sarah doesn’t eat sweets or chocolate at all.”
Pie mistress Laura Donnelly, former pastry chef at The Laundry Restaurant in East Hampton, N.Y., and now food editor at The East Hampton Star, was the only experienced baker on the set. For the film’s final scenes, Donnelly made the dozens of Technicolor custard pies that twirled around the table.
“That was our Busby Berkeley sequence,” Donnelly said. “It was all Dr. Seuss and crazy colors. I whipped up the custard and broke out the food coloring. They were all edible but not necessarily good. But it’s a movie; no one will know how the pies actually taste.”
According to Eagleton, “it was all an illusion. But that’s the movies. It’s the magic of making people believe.”
LATTICE-TOPPED CHERRY PIE
Makes one 9-inch pie
CRUST
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut up
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening, chilled
1/4 cup ice water, or more as necessary
Extra flour (for sprinkling)
1. In a bowl, whisk the flour and salt to sift them. Add the butter and shortening. With a pastry blender or your fingers, cut the fats into the flour until the mixture resembles crumbs. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the water over the flour mixture. With a fork, work the pastry until it starts to form a dough. If necessary, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough forms large moist clumps.
2. On a lightly floured counter, knead the dough gently until it comes together. Divide it in half. Shape each half into a disk. Wrap them in foil and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and for up to 1 day.
FILLING
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 1/2 pounds fresh cherries, stemmed and pitted (enough to make 6 cups)
2 tablespoons butter, cut up
Extra sugar (for sprinkling)
1. Set the oven at 500 degrees. Have on hand a deep 9-inch pie pan and a rimmed baking sheet.
2. In a bowl combine the sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon. Add the cherries, and toss to combine.
3. On a floured counter, roll out one piece of dough to a 10-inch round. Lift the dough onto a rolling pin and ease it into the pan. Turn the edges of the pastry under all around to make a neat hem. Fill the crust with the cherry mixture. Dot with butter.
4. Roll the remaining dough into a 13-by-11-inch rectangle. With a ravioli cutter or long chef’s knife, cut 12 strips. Lay 6 strips across the pie, spacing them evenly. Set the other 6 strips on the first set on a diagonal. Cut the strips even with the edges of the pie. Crimp the edges. Brush the lattice with water; sprinkle with sugar. Place pie on baking sheet.
5. Reduce the oven temperature to 425 degrees. Bake the pie for 20 minutes or until the top is golden. Lower the heat to 375 degrees and continue baking for 30 minutes until the filling is bubbling at the edges. (Total baking time is 50 minutes.) Cool on a wire rack.
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