Honoring Pittsburgh’s rich food traditions that have stood the test of time

PITTSBURGH — From Heinz Ketchup to the Klondike Bar to a Primanti Brothers sandwich, Pittsburgh foods are not only Western Pennsylvania favorites. They’ve become national and global sensations.

Each has a rich history. Take the Pittsburgh cookie table, for example.

When you step into Laura Magone’s kitchen in Monongahela, it feels like you just stepped back in time.

“There’s nothing you’re gonna pick up here that’s less than 50 years old usually,” she said. “Old school, that’s what I’m trying to say.”

Magone learned to bake from her mom, Wanda, who typed out every recipe on a typewriter.

“She was known as the biscotti queen,” Magone said.

She is the product of four Italian grandparents, immigrants who came to the US and made a living as miners and steelworkers.

That is where Magone’s connection to the Pittsburgh cookie table begins.

“The cookie table is about the blue-collar immigrants. That’s who started the tradition,” Magone said. “It’s a tradition that came from the blue-collar immigrants who had nothing. But they were very generous and baked for each other and shared with each other, and I think it’s a heartwarming story.”

Magone went on to explain that when there was a wedding in the community, everyone would pitch in for the cookie table.

“You didn’t have to be asked to bake. If you heard that somebody was getting married -- as soon as you heard they were engaged, you were calling and saying even if I’m not invited, what can I send?” Magone said.

The tradition has evolved over time and expanded far beyond Western Pennsylvania. The cookie designs and table layouts have become elaborate and quite impressive.

“You can call it cradle to grave,” Magone said. “When you graduate, when you get married, when you retire, when you have an anniversary party, when you die, you know, we’re baking cookies.”

Magone hopes the history and meaning is not lost.

“It’s about the love and the generosity that go into the baking. That’s what it’s about,” she said.

In 2015, she started The Wedding Cookie Table Community page on Facebook. She was not prepared for how quickly it would grow or how popular it would become.

“But then it took off. It was like a match got lit,” Magone said.

The page now boasts more than 410,000 members who enjoy sharing stories, recipes and cookie table photos.

The cookie table is, of course, only one of Pittsburgh’s great food inventions. The Big Mac was created in Uniontown in 1967. It went national the next year. Heinz Ketchup first appeared on shelves in 1876. Then there’s the banana split. The famous dessert was invented in Latrobe in 1904, when it was sold for 10 cents.

Magone even made an America 250-themed cookbook.

Channel 11 visited Pages’s Dairy Mart on the South Side, where lines regularly wrap around the building. In its 75^th year, the locally owned ice cream shop has become a Pittsburgh staple.

Banana splits are one of the fan favorites.

“We probably go through, honestly, 200 pounds of bananas a week,” owner Margie Prusia said. “We put vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, strawberries, pineapple whipped cream and nuts. And then we also have our version of the banana split, we call it Black and Gold. It’s the banana, the vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, chocolate chips, and brownies. We sell a lot of those, too.”

Prusia has been making banana splits since she was 12 years old. She can make a pretty good-looking one in one or two minutes flat.

“My great-grandfather started it in 1951 and passed it to my grandfather. My grandfather passed it to my dad and then my husband and I bought it from my parents in 2020,” Prusia said.

Page’s survived the big flood of 1936 and an explosion in 1958 that leveled the building and left 10 people hurt. Like true Pittsburghers, they rebuilt and better than before.

Speaking of her grandfather and great-grandfather, Prusia said, “I think they would be proud. I think they would be happy with how things are going and just keeping it a Pittsburgh tradition over the years.”

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