Linda Horton of Valley Station won the blue ribbon for best pie at this year's Kentucky State Fair with her buttermilk pie. Unfortunately for her, she revealed by her own admission that the crust she used to make the pie was a Pillsbury store bought crust instead of the homemade crust that is required by contest rules.
Horton actually won the blue ribbon for the same pie last year. She told The Courier-Journal that this year she ultimately decided to use the Pillsbury crust after trying many different variables because the homemade crusts were, "too buttery and didn't crumble enough."
Horton knew that these two aspects were crucial to her chances as they are important for the judges scoring.
The judges explained that among hundreds of entries, it might be difficult to tell which are store bought.
But let's take this beyond contest rules.
State fairs in today's world are places where words like nostalgia, down home, and tradition all go hand in hand. But the scrutiny that the judges say might occur in their procedures because of this mistake should consider words like progressive and modern.
Horton has already won the blue ribbon once, so obviously baking buttermilk pies is something she is quite good at. If she says that the Pillsbury crust creates a pie that is not as buttery and doesn't crumble as much, I'm going to take her word for it.
Isn't it the judge's responsibility to reward who created the best pie in the contest? According to the original results, that's what they did. They just didn't know all the details about the pie they gave the blue ribbon to.
So let's take the ethics approach. Is Horton a scoundrel for what did she did? Did she hope she wouldn't get noticed? Obviously not, as she was so open to the press about the crust. No, I think she obviously cares so much about the pie and the contest that she wanted to create the best one and knew how to do it the best way.
Unfortunately for Horton, it is likely just as obvious that she knew the blue ribbon was going to get taken away. But perhaps, this situation will be taken into consideration for future contests. What is the end goal of these contests? Is it to create the best pie? Sounds like Horton did just that with a Pillsbury pie crust.
In the end, the only party that comes out of this situation unscathed is Pillsbury. Their pie crust won a blue ribbon at the Kentucky State Fair. What a marketing plan...
Photo courtesy of Kentucky State Fair Facebook page.
