By Sharon Oliver
Contributing Writer

BOSTON – Throughout American history, New England and Pennsylvania Dutch bakers were recognized for their cakes and pies, particularly during the mid-nineteenth century. One such timeless confection is the Boston cream pie. Created by Armenian-French chef Augustine François Anezin in 1856, this “pudding cake pie” is still a hit with pastry lovers hundreds of years later.

Legend has it that Anezin was hired in 1855 by the lauded Parker House (now Omni Parker House) in 1855 where he invented the classic dessert. According to executive chef Joseph Ribas, who has been with the hotel for 27 years, Anezin invented the dessert “because he was topping an English cream cake with chocolate. He started to play around with the recipe, put almonds around the outside, and the guests loved it.” Even though it was called a cake, during the 1800s pie tins were more commonly used than cake pans.

It all began when Anezin started playing with the recipe, adding chocolate frosting on top and almond slivers around the side and resulting in what is now known as his masterpiece and making Anezin one of the first celebrity chefs in this country. Reportedly, Anezin was paid an annual salary of $5,000, at a time when most cooks earned about $418 a year. Initially referred to as chocolate cream pie, the Parker House chocolate cream pie (eventually Boston cream pie), was descended from earlier cakes known as American pudding cake pie. 

The original chocolate cream pie had two layers of French butter sponge cake sandwiched together with thick custard and brushed all over with a rum syrup. The side of the cake was covered in vanilla custard and toasted flaked almonds, and the top was covered in chocolate fondant. This new recipe was something unheard of since chocolate was normally used for puddings and/or drinking hot chocolate.

The “chocolate cream pie” first appeared in the 1872 Methodist Almanac. The earliest iteration of the modern chocolate cream pie recipe was featured in 1887, in Miss Parloa’s Kitchen Companion.

An affiliate with Historic Hotels of America, the former Parker House is famous for its classic food creations which also includes Baked Boston Scrod (a white fish dish) and Parker House rolls. Since opening its doors centuries ago, the hotel has served presidents, heads of state, sports icons, A-list actors, popular musicians, and jetsetters from around the world.

Several years later, another “made in Massachusetts” moment occurred in the Parker House kitchen after a fit of exasperation. During the 1870s, an angry pastry baker allegedly threw a batch of unfinished rolls into the oven after an altercation with a guest. The result was what is now the identifiable dented appearance of Parker House rolls. The recipe for the buttery soft and slightly sweet rolls was first printed in the April 1874 issue of the New Hampshire Sentinel.

By 1876, the rolls were a standard item on the hotel restaurant’s menu. Soon after, they became the hotel’s side business and sold to other hotels, restaurants, and stores. Parker House rolls were loved so much that even French composer Jacques Offenbach sang its praises while eating, “Parker rolls, Parker rolls, how I love you!”

Today, Boston cream pies along with Parker House rolls are among the favorites enjoyed in homes and restaurants everywhere. Boston cream pies were such a hit that it was made into a Betty Crocker boxed cake mix and sold from 1958 until the 1990s. In 1996, Boston cream pie was proclaimed the official Massachusetts State Dessert and National Boston Cream Pie Day is celebrated each year on October 23.

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