In which I tell you about the second half of the show, the ringer winner and my fail pie.

So where was I? I remember, pie talk. After Martha spoke to some audience members about their pies, chef Sandro Micheli (also one of the judges) made a beautiful chestnut pie with rum cream, that made the whole set smell great.

Another break and five pies are placed on a center table pulled up front of the set, we are told those are the finalists. Martha then comments or asks a few questions about every one of them and we’re told that after the break the winner will be announced.

[drum roll sound loop here]

The winner ladies and gentlemen is Marjorie Johnson, an adorable tiny lady from from Robbinsdale, Minnesota. She won with her English Toffee Pecan Pie. It’s a great looking pie, don’t get me wrong. However here is where it got a little weird, the whole time we were in line, pretty much everyone from the Martha staff recognized her and mentioned how many times they had her on the Rosie O’Donnell Show.

Turns out Marjorie Johnson is a TV regular, and she’s good at it too, if you missed Martha Stewart’s Tuesday’s, you can check out this clip of her as a correspondent for The Tonight Show or google some more. Also, on Tuesday, Martha addressed the ringer rumors as being false in the beginning of the show.

I’m going to tell you how I feel about all this. (Are you ready, party people?)  I wish we were given feedback pertaining our pies the lack thereof seems unfair. While this Martha just hopped on the B train and was given an extra ticket by a super cool lady, some of the audience members drove/flew from a lot farther than Brooklyn, pies in tow for what seemed to be a great opportunity.

On my way over to the studio, I pondered how they would try all the pies and what factors would be judged, while I believe that most maybe all the the pies were tasted (they even tried my sad little pie!), I still wish that we were given back a score of some sort. The contest would have then felt less subjective. None of us were screen tested, which had me wondering as well, what if the winner is awful on TV, freezes up or can’t handle being that close to Martha (not this Martha I’m not intimidating at all), but I guess I was thinking about it too much… This episode has gotten mixed reactions, as you can see on the show’s page comments.

All in all, it was still a cool experience, loved going to the show, seeing Martha Stewart in person doing her thing right there in front of us (when we were lucky that the cameras weren’t blocking it all) and I have thanked Susan a million times for inviting me (her post about the show is insanely funny, btw), and it was great hanging out with her and our little group after the show. Oh and the Pie Plate with Locking Lid and the Pie Top Cutter we won along with the book is pretty sweet.

Onto my fail pie! Until a week before the show I had never baked a pie, really, I had put many fillings into store bought pie crusts and called it a pie, but never baked one from scratch. When asked what pie I was taking replied “Cherry Lime Curd” having only the flavor combination in mind.  I stand behind my flavor combination but the execution needs a lot of work (I’m thinking once Cherries are in season again I might retry this pie, maybe a fresh fruit tart with a layer of Lime Curd over it.) Alas, what I had was this, an honest little cherry pie with Lime Curd “wells”. I wasn’t happy with it, specially how it looked but I am learning to accept less than perfect and took it no less, had to anyways.

The crust (Pate Brisee) got a little too crisp, but this baby was really the best pie produced during the week of daily pie try outs. My husband was disappointed the best one was not his to eat, as was yours truly, since the batch of Lime Curd on it was AWESOME!

I’m done! Thanks for hanging in there with me, this was a long post!!

]]> http://www.cherryspoon.com/2009/11/20/i-was-at-the-martha-stewart-pie-show-part-2/feed/ 0 http://www.cherryspoon.com/2009/11/19/i-was-at-the-martha-stewart-pie-show-part-1/ http://www.cherryspoon.com/2009/11/19/i-was-at-the-martha-stewart-pie-show-part-1/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:40:33 +0000 Ms. Cherryspoon http://www.cherryspoon.com/?p=1444 Continue reading →]]>

A week ago I was in the audience and took a (required) pie to the “First Annual Martha Stewart Pie Contest”. It was a very interesting experience, saw my first television “live” taping, Martha Stewart in the flesh, clapped and “hmmmmm-ed” on command, met and had a blast with the awesome Susan from DoughMesstic , her Sister and Gail (who owns One Tough Cookie) and did not win the contest (not that I really thought I had a shot…).

This may shock you but my name is not actually Ms. Cherryspoon. Are you ready for this? it’s Martha. Not Stewart, though, and I guarantee that when you see the pie I took you will know for sure… So the first thing I noticed was that the Martha logo is so heavily branded, my brain doesn’t even register it as my own name, I was sitting in a room full of Martha and only when I took the shot above did it hit me that my name was printed, carved, embroidered everywhere!

This wall to wall Martha Stewart merch oasis is the audience waiting room, here is where the staff will ask you way too many times to go to the bathroom since once seated on the set you may not leave until the show is done (a bit pressuring to be honest, towards the end I found myself questioning my own bladder, do I REALLY know if I have to go or not?!? ), this is also where the warm up comic Joey Kola come in gets us all clapping and gives us a few pointers as to how to be a good audience, he teaches us to fade applause, when to applaud, and to “hmmm” on command as well, oh and remind you to use the bathroom (again!) .

After a while the audience ushered into the set, it’s beautiful (I want my kitchen to be like that someday, only red and mid century modern, which would make it a whole different kitchen I guess. I do like the appliances a lot, though, OK what was I saying? Oh yea I love mid century modern so much…oh yea Martha Stewart! ) and they have “lively” music playing loudly so the audience is consistently “pumped”, that was also the first time we got to see our pies again! All nicely displayed on two long tables  (my ugly duckling was on the far side of the spread, behind a stand, lol), with autumnal decorations all around them, last time I had seen my baby it was on a cart amidst many other pies outside on 26th st.

Lots of setting up going on, the stage manager calls out my name! “Martha R.? Martha R.?” “Frak! I’m in trouble” I think nervously, childhood flashback, there was no possible way I was “in trouble”. Had Sexy McDenim pants (as Doughmesstic so perfectly named him) said my complete full name (all four parts of it!) I’d probably would have made a run for it, but no they just needed to know what my pie was, “Cherry Lime Curd” I shout.  A little (a lot) more setting up goes on and it’s time! We clap, we fade and there is Martha Stewart!

Pie talk ensues, our pie judges are introduced, then pastry chef Karen Demasco (one of the judges) shows us how to bake a Butterscotch Cream Pie from her book, it looks amazing and we all get the books (yay!). Martha talks to a few audience members about their pies, lots of Crisco crusts going on, this Martha prefers butter that Martha is pretty OK with it, this Martha can’t bake a pretty pie, that Martha has written a book about it. This Martha should shut up and end this very long post now (part 2 tomorrow).