Feast Your Eyes On This Artist’s Incredible Pies

Experimental baker Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin is spicing up the pastry world with her elaborate pie masterpieces.

Her boundary-pushing pies have gone viral on YouTube and range from detailed celebrity pie-traits and sci-fi characters to towering three-dimensional pie-scrapers. “Pie making is somewhere in between being scientific, artistic and flying by the seat of your pants,” says Jessica. Known as @thepieous on Instagram, her mission is to redefine and reinvent pies for the modern world while creating a new niche in the culinary industry.

Jessica isn’t a professionally trained baker. In fact, not that long ago, she could barely crack an egg. But by finding inspiration outside of the baking world, and not being held back by doing things “the right way” she has stumbled on countless discoveries through doing things “the wrong way.” “I think the only thing you need to be able to dive into this type of endeavour is an embarrassing lack of fear.”

Along the way, Jessica has tapped into her science background as a former Simon Fraser University physics student and her four-year bachelor’s degree in Design from Emily Carr University of Art and Design to develop new methods and materials. “It was often disastrous. But through that process, I also made a lot of really cool discoveries.”

Her innovations include colouring pastry dough, creating pigments that glow in the dark, and baking three-dimensional shapes. She has managed to turn her passion into a full-time gig, all without even selling a single pie! She shares her knowledge through video tutorials and selling baking tools and her cookbook.

Her advice to others is to learn a lot and uncover happy accidents that lead to breakthroughs. “Accept every single opportunity you have to learn something new. This is what presents those bizarre opportunities that take you to places you never would have considered before, and for me this is what adds up to a fulfilling life well-lived.”

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