{"id":5616,"date":"2021-07-20T12:06:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T16:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test.recipephany.com\/?p=5616"},"modified":"2023-05-28T16:29:54","modified_gmt":"2023-05-28T20:29:54","slug":"liza-lous-sparkly-museum-quality-cherry-pie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/recipephany.com\/?p=5616","title":{"rendered":"Liza Lou’s Sparkly Museum-Quality Cherry Pie"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The thunderbolt of a recipephany can strike when you least expect it. This one walloped us during a visit to New York\u2019s famous Whitney Museum. It\u2019s a gem of a pie inspired by Liza Lou’s Kitchen<\/em>, a full-scale vintage kitchen completely bedazzled in colorfully sparkling glass beads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Art<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brilliant and beguiling, Kitchen <\/em>takes us to an enchanted world. Every object, every surface radiates joy. Even the dishes in the sink, soaking in the swirl of Starry Night<\/em>-style beaded dishwater, gleam with the richness of the Crown Jewels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I define art as something that looks like it took a really long time to make. No doubt about it here. Lou spent five years in the early 1990s gluing millions of beads to cover every inch of her dream kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n

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More than just a vision of whimsy, Kitchen<\/em> evolved into a serious tribute to Lou\u2019s unsung heroes: the housewives of the mid 20th<\/sup> Century. Underneath all the sparkling veneer\u2014a visual sugarcoating\u2014lies a humdrum world with all the drudgery that comes with daily housework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work also wryly comments on life before Women\u2019s Lib. For instance, caricatures of nudes lining the oven recall neon signs from a 1950s strip joint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pie <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the left side of the piece, piping hot from the oven, is a radiant, bejeweled cherry pie, with crust as golden as if Midas had rolled it out. And nearby on the counter, in intricate beading, lies a Betty-Crocker-style loose-leaf cookbook open to the recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s a baker to do? We had to make this pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, we wished Lou had beaded a can of cherry pie filling rather than a recipe. Even now, in cherry season, our grocery stores don\u2019t carry fresh tart cherries. Their shelves are clean out of canned ones, and it took perseverance to finally nab some in the frozen case at our local Wegman\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n

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But the hunt for cherries paid off with this sparkly pie filling. It tastes like Kitchen<\/em> looks\u2014sweet, acerbic, colorful\u2014a perfect rendition of an American icon. And oh, this easy recipe beats any canned filling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it isn\u2019t art, since it didn\u2019t take long to make, here\u2019s our interpretation of Kitchen\u2019s<\/em> sparkly cherry pie. Taking cues from the artist, we topped the crust with shimmering clear and golden sugar sprinkles. And, the cherries on top are balls of pastry covered in red sprinkles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We offer this humble homage to Lou\u2019s masterpiece honoring the women whose labor society took for granted\u2014and who really knew how to make a great cherry pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more photos and fun facts about Kitchen<\/em> and how Liza Lou created it, visit the Whitney Museum. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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Liza Lou’s Sparkly Cherry Pie<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

From Kitchen,<\/em> Liza Lou, 1991\u20131996, Whitney Museum of American Art<\/p>\n\n\n\n