Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Jul 4

Stacey Mei Yan Fong Showcases 50-State Pie Book With North Carolina Atlantic Beach Pie

Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Jul 4

Stacey Mei Yan Fong Showcases 50-State Pie Book With North Carolina Atlantic Beach Pie

Q: Can a pie featuring a Knicks logo truly capture the complex spirit and diverse communities of New York City?

Only partly. Stacey Mei Yan Fong’s Knicks-logo chopped-cheese pie can capture a vivid slice of New York City life, but not the city in full. It works because the symbols are specific and local. The chopped cheese is a bodega staple with roots in Spanish Harlem, and the Knicks remain one of the city’s strongest shared cultural touchstones. In that sense, the pie reflects a real New York mood: neighborhood food, sports obsession, improvisation, and communal pride. Fong’s broader method also matters. Her pies are deeply researched “edible love letters,” designed to mark place and occasion rather than just look clever. But New York’s identity is too layered to be contained in one emblem. The city’s spirit includes immigrant histories, Black and Latino neighborhoods, Indigenous Lenape presence, working-class traditions, gentrifying blocks, waterfront ecology, and countless local identities from places like Hell’s Kitchen, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. A Knicks logo speaks strongly to one shared civic feeling, especially during a playoff run, yet it cannot represent all of those histories and communities equally. So the pie succeeds as a tribute, not a total portrait. It captures a recognizable, emotionally powerful version of New York: the city of bodegas, basketball, and collective excitement. What it cannot do on its own is encompass the full complexity of a city whose identity is built from many neighborhoods, many peoples, and many pasts.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 4

Stacey Mei Yan Fong is featured in a New York Times baking Q&A centered on her award-winning cookbook “50 Pies, 50 States,” described as an immigrant love letter to the U.S. through pie.
North Carolina’s Atlantic Beach Pie anchors the feature, with Fong’s version highlighted for its researched, state-specific approach, including a Cheerwine barbecue sauce twist.
Fong says she bakes pies as life markers; her latest was a Knicks-inspired chopped-cheese pie made after Game 2 of the NBA Finals with beef, onions, Kraft Singles, lettuce and tomato.
The profile broadens her role beyond authorship, noting work as a recipe developer, packaged-goods consultant and buyer for Big Night, underscoring her growing influence in food media.