Skip to content

This Seattle Baker is Designing Stunningly Beautiful Pies

Seattle’s preeminent pie baker finds inspiration in architecture and design

By Chelsea Lin March 4, 2019

PiesTogether

This article originally appeared in the March 2019 issue of Seattle magazine.

This article appears in print in the March 2019 issue. Click here to subscribe.

Then a casual home baker, Lauren Ko made her first pie just over two years ago in her West Seattle home kitchen. Now, her elaborate, geometrically designed pies are a social media sensation turned full-time occupation, and have earned her local and national accolades. Her Instagram account has more than 250,000 followers.

Her meteoric rise through the ranks of Internet fame can be attributed to the beauty of her artful pies and tarts, which are inspired by patterns she sees on everything from floor tile to fabric. If Pi Day (March 14) has you craving a slice, we’ve got some bad news: Ko doesn’t sell her pies commercially; they’re simply inspiration for your own kitchen. Time to get out that rolling pin—and a ruler.

Follow Us

Restaurant Roundup: Holiday Cheer at SLU BRU, StarChefs, and Kabul Closing

Restaurant Roundup: Holiday Cheer at SLU BRU, StarChefs, and Kabul Closing

Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.

Fusion food has an innate ability to bring us together. In the blending of two (or sometimes more) cultures, new perspectives are unlocked and we are all better for it. Esquire is in agreement, as the magazine has selected Lupe’s Situ Tacos, a Mexican-Lebanese taqueria in Ballard, as one of the 33 best new restaurants…

Counter Culture: Sansonina Ristorante Italiano

Counter Culture: Sansonina Ristorante Italiano

An Italian escape hiding in Renton.

Tucked just off Rainier Avenue, across from a Safeway, Sansonina Ristorante Italiano—which opened early in 2019—is the kind of place you drive past for years without noticing until you walk through the door. Once inside, the outside world dissolves, the hum of traffic fades, and suddenly you’re not in Renton anymore. You’re in a dimly…

5 Things to Eat in December

5 Things to Eat in December

This month’s assignment: Take the pressure off. 

There’s something about the end of the year that adds pressure to everything we do. Despite all the talk of holiday cheer and “merry and bright,” heightened expectations can bring a sense of weariness. We’re fretting over feasts and gatherings while working fervently to tie up loose ends—gifts, work, everything—with a pretty bow. Each month,…

Ahead of the Cut

Ahead of the Cut

How a tech-minded home cook turned years of tinkering into a chef’s knife powered by 40,000 vibrations per second.

Scott Heimendinger traces his love for knives back to college, when his dad taught him how to cook over the phone. By his junior year he had saved for his first real knife, a JA Henckels Santoku. Compared with the $9 IKEA knife he had been using, “it felt like a laser… things that used…