Last week, with 100 Thanksgiving pies on order for the wholesale business she runs on Instagram, Sasha Piligian got bad news: She would have only one oven to do all the baking.
She normally works with two ovens, but one was broken and the replacement wouldn’t be installed until after Thanksgiving. Piligian, a seasoned professional who’s worked at some of LA’s most popular pastry spots, like Gjusta and Sqirl, says she took a little time to grieve.
By this week, she had regained focus.
“We've processed all of our feelings about it already,” Piligian said Monday as she mixed apple filling. “I was mad and sad. And [then] I was like, ‘Okay. Well, here we are.’”
A roasted, fried, or brined turkey might be the main event — but pie, buttery flaky crust pie, is the traditional dessert of choice for the fall feast. Bakeries are in an all-out sprint the week of Thanksgiving to make enough pie to meet demands, and the conditions are often intense.
And so Kelly Delany, one of Piligian’s employees, stood in the Mid-City kitchen with its disabled oven and did some worst-case scenario pie math: One oven, 100 pies, two hours of labor per pie. “It'll take us 22 hours,” Delany said.
A pause.
A howl of anxious laughter.
Freshly baked pumpkin pies sit in boxes inside Sasha Piligian’s kitchen in Mid-City. Photo by Megan Jamerson/KCRW.
Delany says baking involves a lot of arithmetic — they have to calculate how much time they have to make sure they can get all their orders done, and geometry as she stacks and restacks nine-inch round crusts in a rectangular freezer.
There are also temperature checks of each rack in the oven, which can vary. Baking is a science and the kitchen is their laboratory. Piligian’s team tested each rack of the oven to determine the true temperature. “That's what makes what we do a specialty because we're also women in STEM,” Delany said with a smile.
And then there’s the most important math of all: the number of pies is exactly equal to the number of orders. Piligian triple checks. “I think every baker's worst fear is that you are one short,” she said.
The team of three women have been on their feet for 12 to 15 hours a day since Friday, cutting apples, hand-mixing dough, rolling crusts, and making filling for apple fig leaf, key lime passion fruit, and sweet potato pies.
While the week of Thanksgiving is showtime for bakers, the planning begins in September.
The cases at Edlyne Nicolas’ kiosk won’t be empty for long. She shut down counter service at Laroolou to make holiday orders, but will reopen next week. Photo by Megan Jamerson/KCRW.
When Edlyne Nicolas, owner of Laroolou bakery in Chinatown, sees the pumpkin spice lattes arrive, she knows it’s time to create her Thanksgiving menu.
“That's when everybody wants to put on the pounds," says Nicolas, the 2019 winner of KCRW’s Good Food Pie contest. “They don't care anymore, and that's what I love.”
In October, the former LAUSD English teacher starts using any spare minute to make crust for Thanksgiving pies, such as her Earl Grey tea and ube flavors. Those moments add up when everything is made by hand, says Nicolas, because baking pie at this scale is incredibly physically demanding. “I'm a little lady, but these hands are pretty strong,” says Nicolas.
By Thanksgiving, bakers are worn out. “All the moving is exhausting,” says Piligian, who treats herself to a massage when it’s all over. “It's just the stress and all the physical labor.”
All the effort is worth it because for many small bakers, Thanksgiving is essential to the bottom line. Since Nicolas and her husband opened their business in 2020, they’ve learned to shut down counter service this week, in order to maximize the number of orders they can fulfill. She also hired a temporary employee to help her make 250 pies this year.
“It's chaotic, but it's what we strive for the entire year,” says Nicolas. “This is our Super Bowl.”
A House of Pies employee walks through the stacks of pies ready for walk-in customers in Los Feliz. Photo by Megan Jamerson/KCRW.
Customers' needs for pie is also a financial boost for the biggest pie purveyors. Noi Paiji, manager of House of Pies in Los Feliz, says the team will make upwards of 7,000 pies this week. The ovens have been running 24 hours a day since Sunday, and she says the kitchen staff is making more than a dozen flavors.
Customers like Mike Maleski come from all over LA County for the variety. As the Thousand Oaks resident paid for blueberry and pumpkin pies, he told KCRW the drive was worth it. “These pies are the best, are you kidding me? This is the place to go to,” he said.
House of Pies opens at 5:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving and Paiji warns the line can go for blocks down Vermont Avenue, but she’ll be there all day until the last pie is sold. “I told everybody, ‘You can come. I’m here.’” says Paiji.