Derby pie

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Derby pie is a pastry created in the Melrose Inn of Prospect, Kentucky, USA, by George Kern with the help of his parents. It is often associated with the Kentucky Derby.

The pie is a chocolate and walnut tart in a pie shell usually with a pastry dough crust. It is also commonly made with pecans, chocolate chips and Kentucky Bourbon. Popular additions are butterscotch, caramel, and other types of nuts.

The name "Derby Pie" is a registered trademark of Kern's Kitchen, which registered the name in 1968. The company uses the name in the form "DERBY-PIE®" in official literature and advertisements. Kern's Kitchen diligently guards the trademark and secret recipe, which is known only to a small group of Kern family members and a single Kern's Kitchen employee (who actually mixes the recipe today). The company has filed several lawsuits over the years to protect its commercial rights. Because of this, others who make similar pies have had to alter their recipes slightly and/or use a different name (such as "Pegasus Pie", a reference to the Pegasus Parade at the Kentucky Derby Festival and May Day Pie, in reference to the First Saturday in May, the day of the Kentucky Derby).

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[edit] History

The Derby Pie was created in 1950 by the Melrose Inn in Prospect, Kentucky as a specialty pastry. The restaurant's owners and Derby Pie creators were Walter and Leaudra Kern, who constantly researched the optimal recipe for their creation. They were assisted by their son George Kern. The name "Derby Pie" was chosen because the various family members each had a different name for the creation, so to resolve the naming quandary they put the various names in a hat, and pulled out the paper which said "Derby Pie".[1]

Even after selling the Melrose Inn in 1960, the Kern family continued to make Derby Pie for select customers. In 1969 they trademarked the name Derby Pie to both the state government of Kentucky and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Since then, the trademark has constantly been renewed as a federally registered trademark. After Alan Rupp, grandson to Walter and Leaudra Kern, in 1973 took over the Derby Pie business, he would religiously defend the trademark. Part of this defense including going after various cookbooks that named a similar pie Derby Pie. A federal judge in April of 1982 ruled against a local cookbook, and demanded that the cookbook be recalled so the page with the Derby Pie recipe could be removed. The cooking magazine Bon Appetit won a temporary victory in May 1987 when a judge ruled the named "Derby Pie" generic, but the Sixth Circuit United States Court of Appeals reversed the decision, saying the Bon Appetit magazine "failed to introduce scientific survey evidence to support their assertion that the public views 'Derby Pie' as generic". Federal district courts have continued to side with Kern's Kitchen in this regard.[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kleber, John E. Encyclopedia of Louisville. (University Press of Kentucky). pg.246.
  2. ^ Kleber pg.246.

[edit] External links