IN THE NEWS & MEDIA
Click on You Tube to view Best Pie Nomination.
First Baptist Church Olive Branch, MS.
Pastor, Jimmy Stewart on ABC NEWS Good Morning America Contest for Best Pie in America. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa6WrQSV_vI
The Pie Folks “Slap Yo Mama-Chocolatre Pie”1 of 4 National Finalist!
ABC News - GMA Good Morning America reveals the Finalist 4 in the Best Slice Challenge! Vote: What's the Best Pie in America. A Winner will be revealed Live! on Sunday, November 23, 2008.
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(Note: The 6 minutes Video will play after GMA 15 seconds Advertisement)
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6264427
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/nov/13/olive-branch-pie-among-four-competing-nations-best/
Olive Branch pie among four competing for Nation's Best
Olive Branch's pie lady, Audrey Anderson, wanted to make one thing clear: Her "Slap Yo Mama" chocolate pie is not the Best in America -- it's the Best in the World.
Thomas Busler/The Commercial Appeal
Vince and Barb Palazola chow down at The Pie Folks in Olive Branch as Richard Copley gets video and Mark Wilkins records the sound for a segment of 'Good Morning America.' Audrey Anderson was nominated by a regular customer as having the best pies in the country.
That's what she told ABC NEWS "Good Morning America," for all of the country to hear.
A camera crew from the show taped Anderson baking at her store, The Pie Folks, on Wednesday for a segment on America's best pie contest.
Olive Branch First Baptist Church, Pastor Jimmy Stewart, her "best customer," nominated her chocolate pie.
Anderson, who created "Slap Yo Mama" by accident, was one of four contest finalists. The other finalists are in Newark, Conn., Dover, Kan., and near Detroit.
"Those guys can't bake," Anderson, flashing a broad smile, told the "Good Morning America" crew. "No one can bake like the South."
Anchors of the show will sample the four finalists' pies, but the decision on which is best will be left to viewers. They can begin voting at abcnews.com after the segment airs Sunday morning.
On Nov. 23, the winner will appear in a follow-up segment on "Good Morning America."
Producer Ameya Pendse said the contest was created for viewers preparing for Thanksgiving, when pies are center stage on the dessert table.
Anderson's first experience with pies was licking bowls her mother had used to make pumpkin pie. She developed an ability to distinguish the contents.
She started baking pies just to take to potluck events and church gatherings. Fans of her pies urged her to sell her pies. After getting laid off in 2006, Anderson decided to take their advice.
She first brought her pies to Whitehaven. In 2007, she moved the business to Olive Branch, where there were bakeries but no pie stores.
At first, she thought her attempt to create a chocolate pie was a failure. It came out of the oven liquidly, not at all like pie. She stuck the concoction in the refrigerator overnight.
The next morning, the pie was set. Creamy. Fudgy. Tasty. "Slap Yo Mama" was born.
It became her most popular pie.
Customers and supporters gathered in Anderson's store at 6785 Cockrum for the taping Wednesday. They picked a slice from her 18 varieties to eat.
The chocolate pie in the national spotlight is 40-year-old Elizabeth Bouchoc's favorite. The Collierville resident, a member of the same church as Anderson, has had it many times.
"It is so velvety," Bouchoc said. "It is decadent -- that's the word. It's rich. You better have coffee, something, to go with it."
Anthony Johnson, 46, of Memphis, said his favorite is Googa Mooga Pecan Pie.
"Those words, they're right," he said.
Rev. Stewart, whose 300-word essay brought Anderson's chocolate pie to the attention of "Good Morning America," came by at the request of the crew.
He thinks so much of Anderson's pies, he's even spoken of them from the pulpit.
Being around church folks all his life gave him lots of experience with pies.
"I've eaten all kinds of pies," Stewart said. "Miss Audrey's is the best."
To order a pie from Anderson, visit www.thepiefolks.com.
http://desototimes.com/articles/2008/11/13/news/doc491c0f92b2520633377375.txt
Olive Branch Piemaker gets National Attention
OLIVE BRANCH ” If you’re looking for one of the best slices of pie in America, you can find it in Olive Branch.
The Pie Folks, a family-run homemade pie business on Highway 305 that customers agree lives up to its slogan, Better Than Grandmothers, was recently nominated one of four finalists across America for ABC Good Morning America Weekend Best Slice Challenge.
GMA crews and producers visited the bakery kitchen on Wednesday to catch its pie makers in action and learn why their signature “Slap Yo Mama Chocolate pie” one of 17 varieties offered at the bakery - earned them a spot in the challenge.
This is so exciting, said Audrey Anderson, who opened the Olive Branch pie business with her husband Ron three and half years ago. We’re hoping we’ll be the winner because nothing better than the “Slap Yo Mama Chocolate pie”. People line up at the shop for it. The texture of the pie is creamy and decadent. It’s a slice of heaven and nothing is better than heaven.
We think it’s not just the best pie in America, it’s the best pie in the world.
Audrey’s confidence is also echoed by some her regular customers.
The pie and the people who eat these pies are the real winners because it is absolutely fantastic, said customer Olive Branch First Baptist Church, Pastor Jimmy Stewart, who submitted the winning essay that placed the business at the top of the challenge. This place truly has the best pies I have talked about these pies in the pulpit.
Audrey has had a love for baking pies since she was around age 11. With no true culinary experience, Audrey said her ability to bake delicious pies resulted from her younger days of tasting the excess batter from the bowls when her mother was baking goodies.
I could taste the raw batter and pretty much be able to tell what the ingredients were in the mixture and what ingredients would make a good recipe, she said. I guess it’s a God-given ability.
Audrey proudly admits that the recipe for her famous “Slap Yo Mama Chocolate pie” is something that metamorphosis through trial and error.
It was a mistake, she said. I would make the pie but just couldn’t ever get the consistency right. So, I kept throwing them away. One day, I got frustrated and just threw it in the refrigerator. And wouldn’t you know it, that did the trick.
The name of the pie, Audrey said, was a nickname it inherited from the opinion of a regular customer.
I had a customer who would always say, “I want that pie the one that’s so good it will make you slap your mama.”
Video footage taken at the shop on Wednesday will air on ABC NEWS Good Morning America Weekend show on Sunday along with footage from inside the shops of the three other challenge finalists in Chesterfield, Mich., Dover, Kan., and Newark, Conn.
A panel of judges will sample the pies and viewers will also have the chance to vote online at www.abcnews.com. The winner will be determined by the score they get from the on-air judging and by the number of people who vote for them online. Votes will be accepted online for one week after the airing of the show on Sunday.
The winner of the challenge will be announced on the Good Morning America Weekend show during a live appearance on the show on Nov. 23. The winner, who is the person who submitted the entry, will get a free trip to New York and a chance to eat at a famous restaurant there.
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