Monroe Boston Strause
Monroe Boston Strause was an American piemaker whose innovations included graham-cracker crust, chiffon pie, and black-bottom pie. He was a "pie celebrity" whose name was "a household word." Strause was born in 1900 in Los Angeles. In 1919 he was hired by his uncle who ran a wholesale pie business. In his early twenties, Strause took over the business, following his uncle's retirement. He became a consultant in the 1930s after selling his company. Because of improvements in oven reliability and consistency, homemade and increasingly complex cakes had been overtaking pie as a popular  American dessert, which inspired Strause to his experimentations. He considered pie to be the "Great American Dessert," superior to most other foods. Strause's technique was more scientific in nature; he called his recipes "formulas." The publisher of his book "Pie Marches On" described it this way: "He has reduced pie baking to an exact science and measures each ingredient with the care of a pharmacist." His focus on quality combined with secrecy and showmanship allowed him, according to "The Globe & Mail", to earn "a bank president’s salary out of pie." He was an early pioneer of the celebrity  chef ethos. In 1960, Strause was hired as a consultant by Cannon Foods Inc. of Bridgeville, Delaware, to create recipes based on Cannon food products. Strause and his wife Violet Marian had a daughter, born May 21, 1938, and a son. He died in 1981.