From KCRW, I'm Evan Kliman and you're listening to good food.

Last week I had a conversation with Nicole Rucker that left me shook.

We were talking pie, of course, specifically apple.

And as we chatted about the merits of thicker cut apples

and the flavor of pink ladies versus Granny Smith,

Nicole said something that I just can't get out of my head.

You know, there's also a case to be made for frozen apple slices that are thawed and seasoned well.

And that is the taste of a classic apple pie that most people think of

That is shocking to me that you would say that shocking

It's April oven. I'm not going to the farmers

America and getting a bunch of beautiful,

freshly picked apples, but I think that in a pinch

we love other frozen things.

We love frozen roadberries.

This is why I love Nicole Rucker.

For those of you who aren't familiar,

Nicole was the first baker to have multiple wins at Good Foods Pie Contest.

She went on to win a first place ribbon at the American Pie Council National Championship,

but more to the point here locally, she has two pie shops, fat and flower in Grand Central

market and in Culver City.

She also wrote a fantastic cookbook about a fruit called Dappled. And with only one week left until this year's Pie Fest and Contest,

she is here to drop a lot of knowledge on apple pie. I started out by asking her how she makes her crumble topping.

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