American Pie Council


The American Pie Council is an organization committed to "preserving America's pie heritage and promoting America's love affair with pies". As America's only purely pie-focused national organization, the APC combines aspects of a hobby club, professional association, trade group, and pro-pie interest group.

Activities

The Council offers both personal and commercial memberships which allow individual participants to have discussions and swap recipes with fellow pie lovers, while providing commercial members with business networking opportunities and promotional support. The APC has run the APC National Pie Championships since 1995. The event is usually held in Celebration, Florida. The competition is open to amateur, professional, and commercial bakers. As an example of typical categories, the categories at the 2014 competition were:
The APC also sponsors or promotes other pie-centric events throughout the year. The APC council also conducts surveys of pie consumption. APC research has shown that Apple is Americans' favorite pie, that 59% of Americans consider pie an appropriate late-night snack, and that 20% of Americans have eaten an entire pie.

National Pie Day

National Pie Day, which is held annually on January 23, is now sponsored by the APC since 1986. The holiday was started in the mid-1970s by Boulder, Colorado teacher Charlie Papazian after he declared his birthday to be National Pie Day. This should not be confused with Pi Day which the U.S. Congress recognizes as March 14.
In 2014, the APC partnered with Paramount Pictures in promoting the romantic thriller film Labor Day in conjunction with National Pie Day.
The APC distributed a promotional poster to pie shops and bakeries featuring images of the film's stars Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, and Gattlin Griffith in the pie-making scene. New York Post writer Lou Lumenick noted dryly that the scene was an "eccentric choice for a promotion" since Brolin's character is an escaped murderer and "before they all make pies together, he abducts them from a supermarket and ties both of them up... A bond does emerge between Brolin and his hostages before he surrenders to police. But still." The poster is captioned in part "It makes the time we spend together, just a little sweeter. Pie. Grab a slice of life."

Publications

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