French Apple Pie

Of my own early food memories, perhaps the one linked most vividly with Hollywood is of French apple pie. My father loved this dessert, and when he was working under contract at 20th Century-Fox, a waitress in the commissary (once known rather grandly as the Café de Paris) always used to save a piece for him. I called the Fox commissary not long ago to inquire if by any chance they might still have the recipe from the 1950s. “Oh, no, we wouldn’t have that,” replied the manager’s assistant.