‘50 Pies, 50 States’ cookbook author ponders pies, dreams and streusel swirl
Baking is a great metaphor for a well-lived life. You take ingredients, sometimes from far-flung places, combine them with care and make something unique that ultimately tastes better shared with those you love.
In her debut cookbook, “50 Pies, 50 States: An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the United States” (Voracious, $35), Brooklyn pie queen Stacey Mei Yan Fong has written not just a recipe book, but a celebration of her adopted home, her life and all the people who have helped her along the way. It’s bursting with color, flavor, personal stories, and passion — and mouth-watering pie recipes.
Perfect for a Fourth of July feast, each pie recipe in the book was created to represent a single state, with ingredients inspired by the place and its people, from Georgia’s Honey Peach Pie to Missouri’s Frozen Custard Pie with St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake Swirl. (We’re kicking off our Fourth of July with her strawberry-blueberry Stars and Stripes Pie nestled in an all butter-crust.)
Some of Fong’s pies are savory, some are sweet, so there’s a pie for every palate and occasion. Try a taste of home or experience the flavors from a state you’ve never traveled to. Each recipe is prefaced with an introduction to the state and many include a personal tribute to a friend who calls it home.
The book is geared toward both seasoned bakers and complete beginners. And as a self-taught baker herself, Stacey won’t judge, if you start out with a store-bought crust. The important thing here is to take your time, put on your favorite tunes and celebrate everything that’s good in life with a slice of homemade pie.
Fong was born in Singapore and grew up in Indonesia and Hong Kong, before moving to the United States for college. Today, she lives in Brooklyn with her roommate and official pie tester, Steffani, and her dog, Nora Ephron. (The dog is named, of course, after the famous screenwriter and director — “Sleepless in Seattle,” “You’ve Got Mail” — and creator of quite possibly the best peach pie recipe ever.)
Fong talked to us recently about travel, family and the appeal of artichokes over avocados.
Q. What’s so special about pie?
A. For me, pie is like a blank canvas to process emotions. When I’m baking, I’m fully focused on the task in hand. I’ll feel so much better and just be a better person for all the other things I have to do in my life. The world we’re in today, we’re so overstimulated! It’s nice to just settle in and enjoy a slice of pie.
Q. Where is home for you?
A. Right now I would say my home is Brooklyn – I’m sitting right here in my apartment. But you know, Hong Kong is my home, Singapore is my home, Indonesia is my home, and even Savannah, Georgia, where I went to college, is also a home base for me. So I’m really blessed to call many places my home.
Q. It’s also a lot of places to miss, though…
A. It’s like a double-edged sword. But being able to roll with the punches and adapt — I’m so good at that only because I’ve moved around so much.
Q. Has that helped with your career?
A. I went to college for accessory design and textiles. When I was applying for colleges, I could either go to England where most of my friends were going, or I could throw caution to the wind, break myself out of my international school bubble and go to Savanah. That huge risk I took for myself, which was really hard for the first 14 months, was the best decision that I’ve ever made.
Q. How did you go from design to pies?
A. In about 2015, I had to apply for permanent residency here. So I thought it would be fun to learn about the country I had decided to call home through pie — I feel like there’s nothing as American as pie — and give the pie to someone I knew from that state as my token of affection for them. It was like my Nancy Meyers-Nora Ephron romcom gesture to my friends, who had become my family during my time here.
During the pandemic when I lost my job in fashion, I ended up working at Four and Twenty Blackbirds, which was my favorite pie shop in (Brooklyn). I don’t work there anymore, but we’re still really close friends. (Owners) Emily and Melissa Elsen actually blurbed my book, which was really nice. It was a very poetic, full-circle experience.
Q. Was this always going to be a book?
A. It started off as a passion project I was doing for fun. America has a lot of shortcomings, especially right now. It’s kind of nice to look at it in a different light and hear all these wonderful stories from people who tell you about their hometowns. And everyone has a wonderful story tied to pie.
Q. My favorite part of the book — besides the pies, obviously — is the dedications to your friends from the different states. What inspired you to include them?
A. It was these people that made this country my home. These are the people in my life that made me fight so hard to be here. And what’s a more grand gesture than to write about them in a book? I feel like people don’t tell their friends that they love them often enough.
Q. In the introduction, you talk about having a personal connection to America that came from music and movies. Were there any big culture shocks when you first arrived?
A. Definitely! When I chose Georgia as my first home in America, I remembered eating American Chinese food for the first time and thinking, “What is this? Why is everything glowing?” I was so confused. I’d never seen (neon orange) food like that before. Now I love American Chinese food. It’s so, so delicious, but I see it as its own category.
Q. You mentioned that you went on a Big Sur road trip when you were 21…
A. That was so wonderful! We started in L.A., went to see my friends living in Oakland and made a lot of stops. I think that’s what’s so wonderful about America. The 50 states could essentially be 50 different countries. They all have their own personalities. So to go from Savannah all the way to California is so refreshing. I haven’t been to all 50 states yet, but I want to see it all, from Kansas to Alaska.
Q. What are your favorite places in the Bay Area?
A. In San Francisco, my favorite place to go is Craftsman and Wolves in the Mission district. They have this one muffin called the Rebel Within. It’s a bacon and scallion muffin with a soft egg inside. It’s the first thing I eat when I land, and it’s the last thing I eat when I leave. I’ll bring one with me on the plane back to New York and eat it like a raccoon.
I also love Napa Valley. I’ve spent a lot of time there with my dad’s job, and a bunch of my friends are there. I’ve spent probably an equal amount of time between Northern and Southern California, but I love the vibe in Northern California more. I think it’s maybe closer to the New York vibe.
Q. You picked artichokes for the California pie — a savory Artichoke Pie with Almond Crumble and Red Wine Reduction. What made you choose that ingredient?
A. I feel like for California, the typical route that everyone takes is avocados. But I’ve spent a lot of time in Napa, and I thought it would be nice to make an ode to that.
So a savory artichoke pie with the almond crumble on the top for a little bit of texture, then the red wine for some acidity. That sounds like the perfect meal to eat while drinking a nice California wine. Also avocados kind of weird me out a little. So I had to go a different route.
Q. Which pie do you love most?
A. The New York pie — Apple Pie with Coffee Cake Crumble. It’s an ode to a city I’ve always dreamed of living in (and) to all the people. Living in New York is tough — you have to really want to be here. It maybe isn’t the most difficult pie to make, but it holds so much emotional weight.
Q. I like that there are so many savory pies in the book…
I wanted there to be a good balance between savory and sweet, because I’m more of a savory person. New Mexico is famous for green chiles. They do green chiles with pork and blue corn, and I just thought, that sounds like the perfect savory pie. So I did a blue corn crust with a pork green chile stew in the middle. It was just so delicious.
Q. What’s next for you?
A. I’m really looking forward to this book coming out and seeing if I got it right. I want to spark the conversation. Doing a second book would be really fun. And I want to go to Alaska!