Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Jayne Buckingham.
Hi Mary Jayne, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I was in nursing for about 10 years before I got into cooking. I was working for a perinatologist in Austin, and my supervisor took me to lunch one day; we were discussing pie, and she said she makes the best buttermilk pie around. I looked at her with a completely straight face and said no, you don’t. My Mama does! She said well, why don’t you put your money where your mouth is? The Driskill Hotel holds a signature pie contest for an amateur Baker who can make a pie good enough to put on their menu at the 1886 Cafe and Bakery. So I accepted that challenge, took my mother’s recipe for buttermilk pie, entered the contest, and won. For years, Betty Lou’s buttermilk pie appeared on the menu at the 1886 Cafe & Bakery. This catalyzed me to leave nursing and want to go into the pie business and make pie. We needed a million dollars to figure out how to make that happen. So, I got to go in on South Congress when the food trailers were still there. We couldn’t afford to buy a trailer that we cooked in, so there was a gentleman with a wooden trailer who hauled his motorcycle around for sale. I purchased that, and my husband built a box on the motorcycle wagon with a window. We put a household refrigerator in there to keep the pies. Then, it came down to the paint colors. My husband asked me what color to paint it, and I told him hot pink and lime green. He asked me if I was sure, and I said light that puppy up like a Christmas tree! I want them to see it three blocks away! With that, Cutie Pies and the Cutie Pie Wagon were born. When we moved it to the lot on South Congress, it was close to Halloween, and my granddaughter wanted to be a fairy princess that year. We had just purchased some feather boas for her costume. As we looked at the trailer, trying to figure out what we could do to dress it up, she suggested grabbing the feather boas and putting them around the window. So we did, and that decoration stuck and has been on the trailer in some capacity since its inception in 2009.
It wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As you can imagine, being a brand new trailer on South Congress and being right next to an already-established Hey Cupcake, to say the least, the beginning was hit or miss! My pies spoke for themselves, and it was only a short time after I opened that people began to come to the pie trailer. I did not cook in my trailer; it was a point-of-sale trailer only. My commercial kitchen was in Cedar Park then so that you can imagine my hours. Getting to the commercial kitchen around 3:00 to 4:00 in the morning, cooking all my pies to prepare for a day on South Congress, and then working the trailer from 11:00 until 9:00 at night made for some pretty long hours. Eventually, I found a commercial kitchen in Austin, which helped alleviate some of my travel time and long hours.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
At the risk of sounding like Bubba Gump, I make pie. All types of pie. Sweet pies, savory pies, chicken pot pie, quiche. If you can put it in a crust, I can make it! That’s what I do day in and day out: make pie. I was lucky to grow up with some fantastic Southern Cooks and watch them hone their craft. To be able to recreate my family’s recipes and be recognized for those recipes has truly been amazing. In 2013, I competed against 300+ pie makers from across America in the National Pie Championships. I took first place with my Heath Toffee Pecan. 2015, I competed again and took first place with my Peach Key Lime Habanero pie. In 2020, I competed on the television show MasterChef. I was on season 11. My peach key lime habanero pie won my white apron on MasterChef. I was chosen as one of the top 15 home Cooks in America. So not only am I a pie queen and a national pie champion, I am also a MasterChef. While I am incredibly proud of earning those accolades, as you can imagine, being a true Southern lady to have my mother’s buttermilk pie recipe recognized as one of the fourth best pies in the Southern United States by Southern Living magazine back in 2010, well was the whipped cream on top of the pie for me. One of the things that I’m known for is being the Pie Queen. I sit in my trailer with a crown on my head because my last name is Buckingham, so I have to be the queen of something, so I am the Pie Queen! Also, being first place in the National Pie Championships twice is a good reason to be called The Pie Queen, too!
What do you like and dislike about the city?
One of the things that I have always enjoyed about Austin and the surrounding area is the number of opportunities you have as a small business. One thing I don’t like about Austin is the traffic and how bad it’s getting.
Pricing:
- Mini pies are $6 including tax
- Whole pies are $25 including tax
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @maryjaynethepiequeen
- Facebook: Cutie Pie Wagon Bastrop
Image Credits
Christopher Brock, Brock Designs
