Today’s Google Doodle Celebrates Pi Day With a Dominique Ansel Pie

It’s Pi Day (March 14, 3.14 — get it?), and to mark this occasion, today’s Google Doodle — that interactive/animated drawing that sits atop the world’s most popular search engine — pays tribute to perhaps the world’s most popular pastry chef: Dominique Ansel.

Ansel, a native of Beauvais, France, is the man behind Dominique Ansel Bakery and Dominique Ansel Kitchen in New York City, as well as five more eponymous projects in Tokyo, London, and Los Angeles. His biggest claim to fame is the Cronut, the croissant-doughnut mashup that took the food world by storm back in 2013. In honor of this holiday — it’s the 30th anniversary of the first official Pi Day — and this Google Doodle, Ansel has created a special salted caramel apple pie, and he’s kind enough to share the recipe.

Of course, pi — not pie — is a mathematical constant; i.e. a number that never actually ends. Remembering the first three digits is relatively easy, but mathematicians have calculated more than a trillion decimal places beyond 3.14. The above apple pie is a fitting tribute because pi is a component in the formula for the area of a circle.

Pie — not pi — can be the subject of much debate. Ansel’s pie is surely delicious, but there are diehard fans of the McDonald’s version who would prefer the latter. At Thanksgiving time, pecan and pumpkin varieties do battle for autumnal supremacy. No matter one’s preference, when it is done well, pie is beautiful and delicious.

Happy Pi Day, folks.

• 30th Anniversary of Pi Day! [Google]
• A Day in the Life of Dominique Ansel: Beyond the Cronut [ENY]
• A Brief History of McDonald’s Apple Pie [E]
• A Brief History of Pecan Pie [E]
• Here’s a Bunch of Photos of Pie [E]