The Unbound Book Festival is happening in Columbia this weekend and KBIA has been speaking with some of this year’s featured authors.
Stacey Mei Yan Fong is the author of the cookbook 50 Pies, 50 States: An Immigrant's Love Letter to the United States Through Pie.
While this will be her time coming to Missouri, her pie homage to the state is inspired by Ted Drewes frozen custard and St. Louis’ gooey butter cake with a healthy dose of rainbow sprinkles on top.
She recently sat down with KBIA’s Alex Cox.
Alex Cox: Can you tell me about the person whose nostalgia you are putting into it?
Stacey Mei Yan Fong: So I met my friend Katie, who I dedicated the pie to at SCAD, in Savannah, Georgia where I went to college. Katie grew up and had wonderful memories growing up eating ooey, gooey butter cake and going on trips to go get frozen custard. Through figuring out that held so much weight for her, I also, you know, we eat ice cream with my dad on the other side of the world. And like, you can find such commonalities through these like little food rituals that you would do with loved ones.
Alex Cox: When you make a recipe or you cook, what emotions do you put into that?
I feel like at the brass tacks, like the whole book, in itself is like an experiment in tenderness, right? Like it's like an experiment in tenderness not only in pie crust, but also in the way you're like talking to someone.
When I think about how I formulate a pie – I did not go to culinary school – when I think about making pies, I'm trying to think about interpreting an emotion or a feeling so like, I love like, going on vacation somewhere, and then I try and capture all of those memories into one pie.
It's like, I went to Cape Cod, I fell in love, I ended up making this beach plum meringue pie that was my dedication to Cape Cod.
And it's so – that's all food is, it's just like capturing tiny memories.
Like, you can't ever conjure up a smell as a memory, right? And you can ever, like conjure up a taste as a memory, like whatever you want. Like you have to have that thing right in front of you.
And it's like, I hope that every time like Katie goes to a Ted Drewes like she has those feelings she had like when she was a kid, right?
Like, for me, it's like whenever I smell or taste like Häagen-Dazs coffee ice cream, I think of my Dad, because that's his favorite ice cream.
So it's like building these little sense memories. And that's what I hope to do with recipes that I develop.
Alex Cox: What is that lightning in a bottle moment that you're like, "Oh my God, I need to make a pie."
Stacey Mei Yan Fong: I was gonna be like, "Not much," but really, it's a, it really varies.
I think you just get like a gut feeling – like when you meet a person, it's kind of the same feeling. It's like when you meet a person and you know, "I have only just met this person, but they're gonna be special in my life in some way. Maybe for a short time, maybe for a really long time."
But you get like this weird like butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling, and you just like know that this is going to be bigger than you think it is.
And I feel like that's kind of how I feel when I develop a recipe or come up with a thought for a pie.
My notes app is very chaotic and just like running pie-thoughts, but yeah, like I just know. I have a pretty – I have a terrible gut for digesting dairy, but a very good gut for figuring out what to make into a pie. So, I know that for sure.
That was KBIA’s Alex Cox speaking with author Stacey Mei Yan Fong about her book, 50 Pies, 50 States: An Immigrant's Love Letter to the United States Through Pie. She’s on the Kitchen Traditions Old and New panel during Saturday’s Unbound Book Festival.
See more Unbound Conversationshere and see more including the complete schedule of events on the Unbound Book Festival website.
