My Behind the Scenes Tour of Frisch’s Commissary

A version of this article was originally published on Girl About Dayton 1.0 on October 19, 2015 and included a fun pumpkin pie giveaway.

Recently I had the chance to join a group of bloggers to take a behind the scenes tour of the Frisch’s Commissary Kitchen in Cincinnati – specifically to check out the small batch method they use to make their delicious pumpkin pies!

First of all, you can’t make great pie without a great crust. It was pretty hilarious seeing completely normal ingredients you use at home going into super-sized mixers. It’s like they are baking pies for giants!  Instead they make lots of normal-sized pie crusts – in fact, these mixers are responsible for making around 45,000 pies each holiday season. Here we are getting the perfect shot of one of their pie crusts with the help of Greg Grisanti, the Director of Research and Development for Frisch’s.

Next, you need a perfect pumpkin pie filling. Frisch’s sources pumpkins grown in Indiana and Illinois so they don’t have to travel far and stay super fresh. As a pumpkin spice fan, this was my favorite part of the tour because the room smelled like heaven. This vat of pumpkin pie filling was a dream come true to see in person.

To get the perfect amount of pie filling in each crust, an experienced Frisch’s employee “shoots” the filling into the crusts one by one.

Each oven can hold around 280 pies, which is great because this season, Frisch’s restaurants will serve around 300,000 slices! (Real Talk:  I will eat around 10 of those slices….)

I also learned a couple of things: 1. I look pretty cute in a hairnet and 2. There’s an amazing secret menu item I can’t wait to try: The Pumpkin Pie Milkshake. Every store should be able to make one for you – but keep in mind, it will most likely cost more than your normal milkshake because it has a piece of pumpkin pie mixed in!