A Match Made in Baking and Blue Ribbons

ATLANTA — Some married couples may vacation in Japan or hike the Appalachian Trail. Chris Taylor and Paul Arguin’s idea of a dream trip involves a rented condo with a good oven and a nearby pie competition.

This year, it was a very good vacation, indeed. Dr. Taylor walked away with $5,000 for best in show in the amateur division at the American Pie Council’s championship in June in Orlando, Fla. His winner, which beat 205 other entries, was a deep-dish checkerboard peanut butter pie with crunchy bits of pretzel, inspired in part by a Take5 candy bar, one of his favorites.

Dr. Taylor suspects that what put him over the top was the hand-laid chocolate and peanut butter grid on the top, coupled with the checkerboard filling of peanut butter and chocolate cream cheese that revealed itself when the pie was cut.

“That was the real wow factor,” he said. (The recipe is too complicated for most home cooks, but the truly intrepid can find it online at piecouncil.org.)

When their jobs allow, the men hit the competitive amateur baking circuit, where they have become something of a phenomenon with their delicious, technically precise offerings. Even their meet-cute story centers on baking. Dr. Taylor was finishing a doctorate in epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, and Dr. Arguin was focusing on malaria prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta when a mutual friend introduced them.