A one-of-a-kind event, four bakers come together to bring an afternoon of art, instruction, insight, and delicious pie. Evans brings her quirky, culinary paintings, and her experience as a storyteller, as Capps, Rosenkoetter, and Jensen all walk attendees through the various stages of piemaking.
TICKETS: $75 include complimentary drink, pie knowledge,
and a gift bag full of surprises from the speakers
TARA JENSEN:
SMOKE SIGNALS BAKERY
An artist who uses baking as her medium to inspire self acceptance and community empowerment. Jensen found baking as a soulful trade that embodied her theoretical and artistic ideals in a single, steaming, crusty loaf. Starting her professional career as a baker while still in college, Tara has worked in several different bakeries across the country. Steadily working her way through all aspects of running a bakery, from bread and pastry production, to management, to costumer service, developing mission statements and vending at farmers markets, Tara has a solid grasp of what makes a bakery tick. She began Smoke Signals in 2012 as a way to develop her own baking practice and share her experience with a wider audience.
AMY EVANS:
ART & PIE BLOG
I am always seeking out stories. Whether by picking up an old lard can at an antique mall and wondering about the life of its previous owner, or interviewing a soul food cook about his signature sweet potato pie*, I am constantly curious about the lives of others. My stories take many forms. Some are objects that hold secrets within an aged patina, Many are told to me by friends and strangers, people I meet as I explore the backroads of the American South. A select few are conjured up in my imagination and become paintings. For me, all of these sources are intertwined. These are the connections I explore through Art & Pie, creating and sharing documents—words and sounds, pictures and paintings—that tell a story.
ASHLEY CAPPS:
BUXTON HALL BARBECUE
Born and raised in Burlington, NC, Ashley moved to Asheville in 2002. She’s lived here on and off ever since, with stints in Athens while working at 5 & 10 and New York at Eleven Madison Park. She originally went to art school, because she always loved working with her hands and the creative space. But her love of baking and heirloom recipes eventually led her to switch tracks and go to culinary school, and now she's been in the kitchen for 15 years and counting. In that time, she’s helped Rhubarb earn a James Beard nomination, opened Buxton Hall Barbecue, taught pastry classes at AB Tech, and inspired countless bakers and eaters of pastries along the way.
JESSICA ROSENKOETTER:
BUXTON HALL BARBECUE
Originally from Atlanta, Jessica has worked in a variety of restaurants for over ten years, she found her love for baking in Athens, GA, in her yellow kitchen baking pies with friends out of whatever happened to be around. Receiving a degree in Social Work and Spanish, she followed her social justice heart and desire to feed people to Asheville, finding a like-minded community and growing food culture. Through a road paved with coffee, pancakes, Indian food, and wedding cakes, she can now be found working under Ashley Capps at Buxton Hall Barbecue, revisiting classic Southern recipes and creating new traditions, practicing and learning, and practicing more along the way.
Still Life of Pie: an Article in the Asheville Citizen Times covers the event
"When we share pie, we share stories," Evans says. That's the notion behind the Buxton Hall workshop that has Evans traveling to Asheville from Texas. Along with Buxton bakers Ashley Capps and Jessica Rosenkoetter and Smoke Signals baker Tara Jensen, she'll explore the intersection of art, storytelling and food. The workshop is "art and pie come to life," Evans said...
Visit AmyCEvans.com to read about the Art & Pie blog and her Saltville portraits,
inspired by recipes and stories from the Saltville Centennial Cookbook.
Words from Ronni Lundy, food writer and editor, about the Saltville Centennial Cookbook:
"Many of us who relish community cookbooks read them not just for their recipes, but for the hidden clues to what a town, a church, a Junior League, or an individual contributor was really like. Ingredients, methods, and the simple choice of what recipes to include are like broken flints and pot shards found on an archaeological dig — seemingly small items which can perhaps be assembled to give a larger, richer, possible story. With that in mind, coming across the Saltville Centennial Cookbook was for me much like finding the ruins of ancient Pompeii, remarkably preserved in ash. More thrilling even than the recipes, are the rich stories of each cook gathered in this singular book. Reading them, I learned not only her recipe for Chess Pie, but also that “Sallie Taylor cooked delicious meals on her wood and coal cook stove. Yes, she also had an electric stove in her kitchen…” Or that Minnie Barrett Henderson “would follow the ‘signs,’ for example, don’t cook candy or icing when the weather was rainy.” As I was reading some of the descriptions, I found myself thinking about the work of my dear friend and fantastic artist, Amy Cameron Evans, the results of which are now hanging on the walls at Buxton Hall. A little bit haiku, a little bit documentary, and all art, Amy’s portraits bring eleven women of Saltville to vivid life. "
Photo and Art Credits:
Art and Pie collage by Amy C. Evans, Tara Jensen photo by Leah Beilhart, Amy Evans photo by Denny Culbert,
Ashley Capps photo by Shara Crosby, Jessica Rosenkoetter photo by Sarajane Case
