Pie à la Mode

Pie à la Mode(literally "pie in the current fashion" or "fashionable pie")ispieserved withice cream. The French culinary phraseà la modeused in the name of this American dessert is also encountered in other dishes such asboeuf à la mode(beef à la mode).
Pie à la Mode was allegedly invented at the Cambridge Hotel inCambridge,Washington County,New York, in the 1890s.
The claim is that while visiting the hotel, Charles Watson Townsend ordered a slice ofapple piewith ice cream. When asked by another guest what he called the dish, he named itPie à la Mode. Townsend subsequently ordered it by that name every day during his stay. When he later ordered it by that name atDelmonico's RestaurantinNew York City, the waiter responded that he had never heard of it.Townsend chastised the waiter by stating:
The manager, when called by the waiter, declared "Delmonico's never intends that any other shall get ahead of it... Forthwith, pie à la mode will be featured on the menu every day".A reporter for theNew York Sunnewspaper overheard the disturbance and wrote an article about it the next day. Soon, Pie à la Mode became a standard on menus around the United States.
When Charles Watson Townsend died on May 20, 1936, a controversy developed as to who really invented Pie à la Mode. TheNew York Timesreported that "Pie à la Mode" was first invented by Townsend at the Cambridge Hotel in Cambridge, New York in the late 1800s. It was later reported by several sources that Townsend ordered pie and ice cream at the Cambridge Hotel in 1896, and thus invented the dessert. The legend also states that a reporter fromThe Sunnewspaper in New York overheard a conversation between the manager of Delmonico's Restaurant and Charles Townsend. The reporter was said to have written about the incident in the very next issue ofThe Sun.
A reporter from theSt. Paul Pioneer Pressread Townsend's obituary in theNew York Timesand considered that theTimeshad incorrectly attributed the invention of pie à la mode to Townsend. The newspaper accordingly ran a story on May 23, 1936, about how the dessert was in fact invented inside a Superior Street restaurant in Duluth, Minnesota, in the 1880s. The St. Paul newspaper indicated the Duluth restaurant specifically served ice cream with blueberry pie. This was over a decade before Townsend first ordered pie with ice cream in New York, making Duluth the true birthplace of pie à la mode.
A grand opening bill of fare for the Hotel la Perl was published in the March 26, 1885, issue of theDuluth Daily Tribune. The hotel was located at 501–503 West Superior Street in Duluth. The menu showed the hotel restaurant serving both vanilla ice cream and blueberry pie.
The owner of the hotel was John Gieriet. He was born in Tavetsch, Switzerland, on February 6, 1829. He later moved to France where he learned to speak French. Gieriet moved to the United States in 1854. In 1856, Gieriet was put in charge of food service at the White House under the administration of President Franklin Pierce. He continued in that position into the late 1850s when he served under the administration of President James Buchanan.
The Gieriets moved to Duluth in 1885 and purchased the Commercial Hotel, which had been built in 1884 by William Dambruck. John re-named the building Hotel la Perl. It was a large two-story wood-frame building with a flat roof. A saloon located on the first floor was converted into a restaurant and the rear laundry room was remodeled into a kitchen. On the Hotel la Perl's first day of business, Gieriet served up a fancy dinner that included French pickles, oysters, French peas, and Lake Superior trout. For dessert, he served warm blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream. Gieriet called the popular treat "pie à la mode". It was reported in theDuluth Heraldthat Duluthians in the 1880s often mispronounced the local invention as "pylie mode". In 1886, theDuluth Weekly Tribunestated the Hotel la Perl had gained a "first-class reputation" under Gieriet's management. John continued to operate the Hotel la Perl until his wife became very ill in 1886. He ended up selling the hotel in August of that year.
Pie à la mode was not John Gieriet’s only invention. He received a United States patent for a railroad car ventilating apparatus on June 20, 1882. He also received a patent on October 30, 1899, for a type of fire escape. By 1910, Gieriet had moved to New York City, where he died on May 22, 1912, at the age of 83.