So Sous Me: Cat Wilcox of High 5 Pie
In the current era of chef worship, no one should expect the executive chef to be at the restaurant expediting service every night. With a restaurant's limited capacity and razor-thin profit margins, chefs need multiple sources of revenue. So who exactly is feeding us while our celebrities are out competing on Iron Chef? Seattlest answers this question through a series of interviews with our city's sous chefs and chef de cuisines. We continue our series with an early morning visit to High 5 Pie on Capitol Hill, where bakery manager Cat Wilcox whips up sweet and savory goodies that remind us of our childhoods.
According to High 5 Pie owner Dani Cone, "when it comes to pie, everyone has a story." For Cat Wilcox, that story took place outside Portland, when she visited an uncle at the age of nine or ten. The South Texas native visited a U-pick blueberry farm on the outskirts of town, where she was introduced to a magical world where she could pick and eat blueberries on the spot, and then take them home to make a fresh fruit pie. "The only farms in the south are cotton farms," she says. Today, Wilcox is the bakery manager at High 5 Pie; she need only take a bus or quick stroll to get her hands on fresh fruits and vegetables for the dozens of pies she helps create.
Wilcox grew up in Corpus Christi, where she spent most of her life baking for fun. "My mother wasn't a cook, so I remember making pies for Thanksgiving," she explains. Since no real fruit orchards exist in Texas, Wilcox doesn't have any recollections of eating any fruit pies as a child, even the American favorite, apple.
"What about canned fruit filling?" I asked, thinking of my own childhood. "Not even that!" she exclaimed. She has memories of baking and eating her favorites, pecan pie and chess pie, the latter a sugary dessert native to the southern U.S.
After going to school in Connecticut, Wilcox followed a boyfriend out west to Seattle. Although the relationship ended, she fell in love with the Emerald City, particularly the changing seasons that "keep things new," whether it be flowers, fashion, or food. Wilcox initially got into the baking industry two years ago, coming on board at High 5 Pie back when it was just a wholesaler. Fresh off a job in the bag production industry, WIlcox maintained a passion for producing, and melded it with her longtime love of baking.
"I love the physical aspect of seeing the end product, especially when people talk about it...they always remember food you make for them," she says. Currently, she manages about twelve bakers who work hard to hand roll all the pie dough. On a busy weekend, they can sell as many as forty to fifty whole pies.
When she joined High 5 Pie, the recipes for classic pie flavors were already established, and as a wholesale distributor, there wasn't room for experimenting with Wilcox's specialty of creamy, savory pies. Since the new pie shop has refrigerated displays, Wilcox has been working hard to perfect her recipes for custards, cream pies, and savory pies. She has also been able to add some new flavors into the rotation such as a Frito pie, another popular Southern dish, and Froot Loop pie, using the cereal milk. As High 5 Pie continues to run its wholesale operations, Wilcox occasionally takes on custom orders, such as a recent request for rhubarb custard, which a customer remembered from his childhood.
"When you get on the subject of pie, people have so much to say to you." Whether it's a technical question of how to make the best pie crust, or a memory of eating grandma's pie, there's so much about pie and food in general that can spark common interest and conversation. When I asked her opinion on the notion that "pie is the new cupcake," Wilcox hinted at the timeless, classic aspect of pie. "Pie is a comfort food, and people have memories associated with it." Not to mention the great deal of flexibility with pie. "You could have pies for every meal of the day!" she exclaims.
High 5 Pie serves up not only pie slices and whole pies, but inventive pie jars, flipsides, cutie pies, and pie pops, as well as "take 'n bakes." Come get your pie fix at the crack of dawn or as a late night dessert. The Capitol Hill location is open at the following times: Mon-Thu, Sun 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. // Fri-Sat 7 a.m. - 10 p.m.
