Today: Tonya Saidi of Mamma Toledo's Pies & Homemade Desserts.
The Phoenix Public Market regularly stocks Saidi's pies and she unveiled her pie truck at last weekend's Food Truck Festival.
She says that her career into the pie baking started 15 years ago when she baked a raspberry pie for the residents of a residential care home. People were impressed. So much so that she started baking for a progressively larger audience, starting with her family and radiating outwards into the minor pie empire she manages today.
She says her driving motivation is to "Feed and nurture the world one dessert at a time!"
Mamma Toledo answers our questions after the jump.
1. Pie is... a classic and tends to bring people back to some nostalgic time in their childhood. That is one of the best things about baking pie and serving people, you get to hear a little story about their mother or grandmother that makes their eyes sparkle. So if I had to finish the sentence I would say that Pie is the New Gateway to your Happy Place.
2. The hardest thing about baking pie is... not eating all of it.
3. The Phoenix food scene needs more... local restaurants and less... restaurant chains.
4. When I'm not in the kitchen you can find me... Lovin' life. I enjoy so many things that life offers but these are at the top of the list: hiking, volunteer work, spending time with my beautiful children and my loving friends.
5.I'd like to throw a pie at... Jake Gyllenhaal so I could lick it off his face!
Join the Chow Bella Book Club and enter to win a spot as a judge at Pie Social! Details here.
