Shame On You, America: Give Pie Some Respect

Plenty of people like pie. But they don’t love it the way they should, says Vincent Rossmeier of Salon. “For too long, pie has played the ugly stepchild to that flamboyant diva of desserts, cake,” he argues. “Sure, plastered with enough frosting and chocolate-ganache implants, cake cuts a fine appearance,” but inside it’s empty and arid. Pie, he says, is the wallflower with personality, and it's time to stick up for it.

It's also a longstanding American tradition: By the mid-18th century, many Americans ate pie with every meal, and baked 20 a week. Rossmeier is intent on bringing those halcyon days back. There will be no cake at his wedding, he swears, only pie. “My impending nuptials thrill me, but I'm also enraptured about that dessert table, the apple-cheddar, blueberry, strawberry-rhubarb…I do, I certainly, certainly do.” (More pie stories.)