A Baker in Maine Created a 200-Pound Lobster Pot Pie and Fed an Entire Town

The town of Rockland, Maine, has a problem: every July, the Lobster Festival draws 40,000 people, and every July, someone complains that the lobster rolls are too small. This year, pastry chef Linda Gagnon decided to solve that problem by making a single lobster dish so large that no one could possibly complain about portion size. She made a 200-pound lobster pot pie.

The pie measured four feet in diameter and eight inches deep. Its crust required 50 pounds of flour, 20 pounds of butter, and 30 eggs, all mixed in a cement mixer that Gagnon borrowed from her brother-in-law's construction company. The filling contained 75 pounds of fresh lobster meat (approximately 375 lobsters, all donated by local fishermen), 40 pounds of potatoes, 30 pounds of peas, 20 pounds of carrots, and 15 gallons of cream-based chowder broth. The total weight before baking was 220 pounds. After baking, the pie weighed 200 pounds because, as Gagnon explained, "Water evaporates. Lobster does not."

Baking the pie required a custom oven. Gagnon's bakery oven was too small. The town's pizza shop oven was too shallow. A local restaurant offered its walk-in pizza oven, but the pie would not fit through the door. Finally, a retired bricklayer named Sonny Verrill volunteered to build a temporary oven in the town park, using firebricks donated by a demolition company and a steel door salvaged from a decommissioned Navy ship.

"Sonny built the oven in three days," Gagnon said, shaking her head. "He is 82 years old. He smokes Pall Malls. He did not wear gloves while handling hot bricks. He is the toughest person I have ever met. Also, he does not eat lobster. He just wanted to build an oven. That is Maine for you."

The oven was lit at 4 AM on festival morning. The pie was loaded at 6 AM using a wooden paddle the size of a canoe oar. It baked for six hours at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, during which time the smell of butter and lobster drifted across the entire festival grounds, causing what Gagnon called "a low-grade riot."

"People were climbing on picnic tables to see the oven," she said. "Children were crying because they wanted pie and they wanted it now. A man offered me $500 for the first slice. I said no, because the first slice goes to the person who catches the first lobster of the season. That is tradition. I am not breaking tradition for $500. Maybe for $1,000. But not $500."

The first slice went to 87-year-old fisherman Alden "Sparky" Crockett, who caught the season's first lobster (a 3-pound male) back in May. Sparky ate his slice in silence, nodded once, and said, "That'll do." It was, by all accounts, the highest possible praise.

The rest of the pie was sliced by a team of four volunteers using a custom-made pie server—a modified snow shovel. Each slice weighed approximately two pounds and was served on a paper plate with a plastic fork that was comically inadequate. The pie fed an estimated 800 people, though some ate multiple slices and at least one teenager ate three.

"I have never been so full in my life," said 16-year-old Liam Dougherty, who ate three slices and then lay down on a bench for 45 minutes. "My stomach hurts. It was worth it. I would do it again next year. But maybe I would stop at two slices. Maybe."

The pie cost approximately $2,500 to make, not including the donated lobster. Gagnon funded it through a Kickstarter campaign that raised $4,200 in the first 12 hours. The extra money will go toward next year's project, which Gagnon hinted might be a 300-pound lobster lasagna.

"Lasagna is easier because you can layer it," she explained. "You do not need a solid crust. You just need a really big pan. I am already talking to a welder about making a six-foot-square aluminum pan. It will be beautiful. It will be insane. It will be Maine."

When asked whether she worries about the health implications of a 200-pound pot pie, Gagnon shrugged. "It is one day," she said. "It is a festival. People walk a lot. Also, there are vegetables in the pie. Peas and carrots. That is basically a salad. A very buttery, lobster-filled salad. Do not ruin this for me."