LOUISVILLE, KY — When most people think of the Kentucky Derby, they probably think of horse racing, mint juleps and ornate hats. Two weeks prior to the famous two-minute race held each May, however, is the Kentucky Derby Festival, a grand celebration designed to increase anticipation for the race. Over the years, the festival’s partnership with Louisville, KY-based Kern’s Kitchen, makers of the iconic Derby-Pie chocolate nut pie, has become a tradition.
The partnership began in 1990 when the Kentucky Derby Festival was searching for a new pie partner. Kern’s Kitchen was eager to gain that title.
“We had been ready to get involved with the Kentucky Derby Festival ever since we heard about them,” said Alan Rupp, president of Kern’s Kitchen.
The roots of the company’s Derby-Pie chocolate nut pie run deep through Kentucky, dating back to 1954 when Walter and Leaudra Kern — or Grandma Kern — began managing the Melrose Inn restaurant with their son George. It was there that the first-ever Derby-Pie chocolate nut pie was created, named and sold. Little did the Kerns know, by creating the Derby-Pie chocolate nut pie they paved a path for a business that would last for generations to come.
As business picked up and Derby-Pie chocolate nut pie production rapidly hit major milestones, such as 1,000 pies sold in 1960, Walter and Leaudra knew that at the pace their business was increasing, they couldn’t continue to work out of the restaurant kitchen.
The couple moved all baking to their home kitchen, where they had a 5-quart KitchenAid mixer to handle the mixing. Back in those days, they could only bake two pies at a time.
As product demand grew, the Kerns upgraded their resources to a Hobart 140-quart mixer but kept their commitment to quality.
“Our main focus has been that pie coming out the same way it did when Grandma was baking two at a time,” Rupp said.
Growing demand often leads to a need for more production space. Kern’s Kitchen has moved locations multiple times, with production currently running out of an 11,000-sq.-ft. space the company moved into in 2014.
The team prides itself on being very hands-on in the process of creating its own pie dough. However, if they get backed up, one of the perks of being a “somewhat small business,” as Rupp described it, is the versatility to make changes on the fly.
When the team needs to increase production quickly, it uses a Colborne Double Arm mixer combined with a Colborne portioner.
Kern’s Kitchen is built on the foundation of family business, purpose and passion. In fact, a sign on the way into the bakery’s production floor reads, “Purpose and Passion.” It’s important that everything related to creating pies is done with intent. Because Kern’s relies on many old school techniques for crafting the pies, several quality control procedures are required to ensure the highest standard.
“Our walnuts come in already handpicked and machine cleaned,” Rupp shared. “We still dump those on a table and hand sort before we present them to our production manager for mixing.”
The Derby-Pie chocolate nut pie recipe is extremely proprietary, making it one of the most sought-out desserts in the region. New hires who will be working with the recipe have to sign a non-compete and confidentiality agreement. The bakery’s new production manager is only the third person outside of the Kern family to know the complete recipe.
Beyond the Derby-Pie chocolate nut pie, the Kern’s Kitchen product portfolio only extends to one other product, the Golden Pecan Pie. Added to the lineup in 2010, the recipe was also taken out of Grandma Kern’s recipe box.
As a business dating back to the ’50s with only two products in its portfolio, “quality over quantity” is something Kern’s Kitchen takes very seriously. Plans of expanding the lineup had been tossed around internally. However, just like many other companies, COVID-19 hit the bakery hard, so any plans to grow the product line are at bay for now.
“These last three years have been quite a challenge with COVID,” Rupp said. “Restaurants shut down and distributors really locked down. We have been in survival mode for a couple of years, and we are just coming out of that.”
As Kern’s Kitchen gears up for the 149th Kentucky Derby, set for May 6 at Churchill Downs Racetrack in Louisville, preparation to produce enough of the two pie types has been a long, extensive process. Projections for spring began in January, and days are counted in ovens at Derby-Pie. Currently, the bakery uses three rotary tray ovens that can bake 80 pies at a time. The projections for the spring and Kentucky Derby Festival totaled nearly 64,000 pies.
With any business, there is often a push to expand and increase profit. Kern’s Kitchen continues to grow, but expanding just for the sake of profit is not what this family business is about.
“It’s not that we want to make a bazillion pies a year,” Rupp said. “I want to make sure we are doing things right and we are making a good quality product. Everything that comes out of Kern’s Kitchen is top-notch quality. That’s where we want to grow our space.”
It is easy to zoom through tasks and prioritize quantity over quality. However, at Kern’s Kitchen, the Derby-Pie chocolate nut pie production process serves as a reminder that slowing down, going back to the basics and remembering your core values can lead to a better end result.
