Life of PIE
Waban Kitchen serves up slices for every palate
Jeffrey Fournier is serious about his pies.
They're the only desserts on his menu at Waban Kitchen, and Fournier requires all hires, from the cooks to the dishwashers to the managers, to come with a pie recipe in hand.
“We're very collaborative,” said the chef/owner of the 10-month-old Newton restaurant. “It's a vessel for creativity.”
For Norman Lange, the prep cook who is usually tasked with overseeing the pie preparations at Waban, his perfect pie is sweet potato.
“Our neighbors made us one every Christmas. It just takes you back to your childhood,” he said, before the alarm on his phone “boinged” and he rushed off to rotate pie shells in the oven.
Though sweet potato isn't currently on the menu, there is lemon meringue, mocha cream topped with pistachios and sea salt, and the best-selling peanut butter mousse with chocolate ganache.
“I can't take it off the menu,” Fournier said.
Waban's rich pies are matched by the generous portions of conversation about the pastry. Jesse Simes, a line cook from New Hampshire, said his family only ate pie at holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“But when we did, we ate a lot of them,” he said.
He ticked off the varieties: chess, peach, apple, crab apple and mincemeat. His favorite was strawberry
rhubarb, made with rhubarb foraged with his dad on hunting trips.
“I hope I can get it on the menu,” he said.
Fournier, whose background is a mix of French Canadian and Armenian, has his own memories, especially of his grandmother's vinegar pie. The base was similar to that of a pecan pie, and the brown sugar/vinegar filling had an almost paste consistency.
“My brothers and I would kill it,” he said.
Vinegar pie might be a tough sell, and Fournier has yet to experiment with savory pies as entrees. For now, the point of his dessert pies is simplicity.
“We have an open kitchen and with the brick and wood, it feels more country and rustic,” he said. “The pies just work.”
Fall fruits make some of the tastiest pies. In the new baking book “Pies,” from Montreal baker Josee Fist (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, $23,
available Sept. 15), bakers can choose from a variety of crusts and fillings.
Try this Pear and Nutmeg Crepe Pie (don't be intimidated. The crepe batter is a cinch.).
PEAR AND NUTMEG CREPE PIE
Batter 1/3 c. flour 1/2 t. baking powder 1 T. sugar 1 pinch sea salt 1 pinch ground nutmeg 4 eggs, lightly beaten 1 c. milk 2 T. vanilla extract
Filling 1 T. unsalted butter
1/3 c. and 1 T. sugar 4 Bosc or Bartlett pears,
cored, peeled and quar tered
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
For the batter: In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and nutmeg. In a different bowl, whisk eggs, milk, butter and vanilla. Add egg mixture to flour mixture. Beat until smooth. Let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter bottom and sides of 9-inch castiron pan. Dust bottom of pan with 1/3 c. sugar. Arrange pears on the bottom of the pan. Dust with the rest of the sugar and ground nutmeg. Cook on the stove on medium heat for 5 minutes. Leave pan on the heat, and delicately add the crepe batter onto the pears. It will cook and bubble on the sides. Bake in oven for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes more, or until center is cooked.