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A tasty attraction: Downtown restaurant earns appearance on Food Network
Courtesy of Paul Ernest Photography - Tom Pizzica, host of the Food Network's, "Outrageous Food," and The Pantry general manager Shelly Kendell hold their portions of a five-foot chocolate cream pie. Pizzica's experience with the pie at the downtown McKinney restaurant will be on the show this Friday at 9 p.m.
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@acnpapers.com
Making a five-foot chocolate cream pie is a great way to get noticed. Doing it twice is just outrageous, which is why The Pantry in downtown McKinney will be featured this weekend on the Food Network show, "Outrageous Food."
The restaurant will appear on the program at 9 p.m. Friday giving a nationa audience a unique peek into the McKinney original through a giant chocolate lens.
"When The Pantry was given the opportunity to be featured on the Food Network show, 'Outrageous Food,' we were thrilled," said Andy Cope, marketing coordinator for The Pantry and one of the pie's creators. "We worked to make not only an outrageous pie, but an extremely tasty pie in true Pantry tradition. Now we're excited for the community, our customers and the entire nation to see the final result."
Friday's episode has Pizzica traveling from Philadelphia to try a two-foot Philly cheesesteak to Brookfield, Colo., for a six-pound taco salad, and finally to The Pantry for a hefty dessert.
"What's so cool about it is it was done in the past," said Ty Lake, McKinney Main Street director. "So everyone's anxious to see it. Mouths are watering."
The Pantry, owned by Tom and Cleo Meredith, opened in 1982 and was moved to the former Hope Hardware building in 1991. Restaurant chefs originally made the five-foot pie in 2007 to celebrate The Pantry's 25-year anniversary.
They made a slideshow of the creation and posted it to YouTube, providing a perfect opportunity for a Food Network discovery.
"The best that we can figure is the network researchers stumbled across the slideshow," Cope said. "They called us one day and wanted to know if we'd be willing to re-create it for their show, and as soon as we could do it logistically, we agreed."
Cope made the 350-pound pie with the restaurant's general manager and head pastry chef Shelly Kendell, and chefs Rita Petty and Cynthia Ross. The crew worked around the clock for three straight days just to prep, most of the work coming during after hours.
The network wanted a massive-to-normal comparison, so the chefs actually made the equivalent of two massive pies. They made 45 regular pies for the comparison, but Cope said the actual five-footer was equal to almost 60 normal pies.
Petty's husband built a special rig that matched the lip of the giant pie tin and would fit in the oven, which allowed the chefs to create the edge of the crust. They spread the rest of the pie including the cream cheese base, chocolate, whipped cream and chocolate chips with gardening and construction tools. Viewers can see the step-by-step creation on the upcoming episode.
Cope said that the final product was worth the hard work.
"It was a logistic nightmare as far as scheduling it and planning it," he said. "But it was even better than normal. It was probably the best tasting pie that ever came out of here. I'm not even joking."
More than 100 people helped Pizzica eat the monster pie, including members of the McKinney Police and Fire Departments and the U.S. military. Lake and several city council members also came to the filmed celebration, partly because of what the show can do for The Pantry and McKinney in general.
"The great thing about it is that it's great for The Pantry," Lake said. "It's also a great opportunity to showcase to the whole nation our downtown and why it's so special."
Schepps and Sysco donated all of the supplies needed for the pie. Cope said that filming took almost 20 hours and that even without cameras, the process would have taken about 10 hours, but all of the time and effort will be worth it.
"It was real exciting," Cope said. "It was one of those experiences that I'm glad I was a part of. It's an awesome story to tell."
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