Just Desserts

     And after you've enjoyed the Kentucky Hot Brown sandwich you should look over the dessert menu for a slice of Derby Pie.  But you might not find it.  It's only sold in a very few, select restaurants in and around Louisville.

     It was Walter & Leaudra Kern who with their son, George, that came up with the recipe for a chocolate chip and walnut tart in a pie shell covered with a pastry dough crust back in 1950 at the Melrose Inn in Prospect, Kentucky.  Unable to come up with a suitable moniker for their concoction they put several potential names in a hat and Derby Pie was the name that was pulled out.

     Eventually the Kern family moved on from the Melrose.  But they took their recipe with them and registered it in 1968.  The succeeding family members still diligently guard their trademark secret recipe.  Only a few family members and a single staff person have access to the ingredients and proportions that go into making the pie.  They have even gone so far as to file over 25 lawsuits against those who would use the name and print the recipe, including local organizations who would print it in a cookbook.  And that is why the Electronic Frontier Foundation has named the Derby Pie into their Hall of Shame for being the most litigious confection in America.

     For obvious reasons I will not print the recipe below: