Pie makers cooking up your daily crust

American Hong Kong resident Meg Teckman-Fullard says she has always had a thing about pies. Her family baked them to give away at Christmas, and Teckman-Fullard started doing the same when she moved here in 2008. The positive responses she received prompted her to open Pretty Pies Please, a made-to-order enterprise, in September.

"We have a mixture of customers, from expats to Asians who have been abroad and developed a taste for pies. They'll say, 'I was just thinking about a lemon meringue - you are the answer to my prayers,'" she says.

Why do pies prompt such praise? "I think for a lot of people, myself included, it's about the memory of the good old days - your grandmother baking when you were five, or a visit to the country fair."

Those pies of yesteryear baked from scratch and left to cool on the window sill conjure nostalgic visions of a simple, honest dessert staple. Today's Hong Kong versions have a glossier edge.

"My apple pies put others to shame," says R.J. Asher, the founder of Tai Tai Pie Pies, whose drunken apple crumble contains eight apples of at least four different varieties sautéed with whiskey and topped with a cinnamon pecan crumble. With Thanksgiving upon us, pumpkin and pecan pies are heavily in demand. Asher's team has orders for about 300 Thanksgiving pies. Pumpkin, the best-seller, has the squash flavoured with rum, while four cups of nuts are used in the pecan pie.

The extra work making these from scratch pushes up the price. Teckman-Fullard's nine-inch (23cm) pies are good for about eight portions and cost HK$250.