‘A simple thing:’ Local tradition showcased on national TV
When Laura Magone launched a cookie-themed Facebook page in 2015, the business consultant from the Mon Valley never dreamed social media would land her on national TV.
But last week, Magone welcomed viewers nationwide into her mother’s kitchen in Monongahela to share Pittsburgh’s unique cookie table tradition, during a Today show segment titled “Inside the tradition of the wedding cookie table.”
“In Pittsburgh, you’ll hear the expression, that ‘We don’t ask, what did the bride wear to the wedding? We ask, how were the cookies?'” Magone told the Today show audience. “The wedding cookie table tradition is all about community.”
Communities of immigrant women, Magone explained, settled in the greater Pittsburgh region and donated their time and talents to fill wedding reception tables with the sweet taste of home. Baking cookies for weddings brought women together and expressed generosity and love to couples starting the next chapter.
“People have this idea that that tradition started during the Depression: People could not afford cakes, so they had cookies instead. I find no evidence to support that,” Magone said.
She would know. For the last nearly 10 years, Magone has been “knead” deep in wedding cookie table history. In fact, her Wedding Cookie Table Community Facebook page, which currently has 211,500 members, began as a research project.
“I’m a filmmaker. I have created some short and feature length documentaries. This was the next story that I wanted to tell,” Magone said. “I started the page hoping people would post historic photos or movie footage. Then I learned it doesn’t exist, for the most part. The research on this subject is very difficult to do, because people didn’t take pictures over the years of their cookie tables.”
The small collection of images depicting women baking and tables spilling over with pizzelles, kolache and lady locks (the most popular wedding cookie) that Magone was able to compile over the years was submitted to the Today show and appeared as part of the segment, to the delight of those pictured.
“It was a big deal. I know how proud it made my members. I know how proud it made people from this area. My friend from Washington, I put her mom’s wedding photo on it,” Magone said. Her friend called and said, “‘You can’t imagine how many people called my mom.’ They saw her picture, they recognized her. No matter how short of a time somebody’s photo was up there, they got phone calls. It was exciting for everybody.”
Like the many helping hands that lovingly bake dozens and dozens of cookies for local weddings or locally raised brides, it took many hands to prepare Magone for national television. The week leading up to filming was a whirlwind, Mgaone said, because she had to “redd up” her parents’ home – she decorated the kitchen for Valentine’s Day, when the bit aired – and prepare batter. The producers requested trays of both unbaked and baked cookies for before and after shots, and the morning of film day, Magone and friends spent plating cookies for the Today show crew.
“The preparation was extensive,” Magone said.”I didn’t even think about what I was going to wear, pretty much until that morning. We were more focused on the cookies than on what we looked like. It was a fun week, but it was an exhausting week.”
About a dozen bakers from the area, including Ella Gannis, who owns Chatty Cupcakes, baked pastries for the Today show set. Those cookies, displayed beautifully thanks to a table design by Mona D’Ambrosia, a cookie table Facebook member, appeared at the end of the segment.
“This was a community effort,” Magone said. “It was exciting for my bakers to look and see their cookies on national TV.”
Also mentioned on national TV: the Wedding Table Community’s outreach initiatives, including its support of Uvalde, Texas, following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in 2022. The Wedding Cookie Table Community was, like the rest of the country, shocked to hear the news.
“I sat there thinking, was there something that we could do to lift people’s spirits a little bit in the midst of this tragedy?” Magone said.
She asked her Facebook followers if anyone lived in Uvalde, and two members responded that they were nearby, in San Antonio. Those two members served as a liaison between the cookie table and Uvalde communities, and helped coordinate the donation of more than 1,200 dozen cookies to the Uvalde families, school district, hospital and first responders from the Wedding Cookie Table Community.
“Somebody from the local area actually drove the more fragile cookies – the lady locks, the peaches, the gobs, everything that needed to be refrigerated,” Magone said. “It was a massive project. Just for a minute, we made people smile.”
Every few months, the Facebook community comes together to spread more smiles, contributing to causes big and small.
“Bakers are very generous. Studies have shown that baking can be therapeutic not only for the person baking, but for the person that you give things to. Our members want to do things for other people. I’ve simply provided the forum,” Magone said.
On the forum, members share recipes and baking tips, applaud each other’s talents and marvel at elaborate cookie displays.
“People enjoy coming to the page because it’s a positive, safe place where they can meet other bakers,” Magone said.
Bakers from across the U.S. will meet in person this May, during the annual Cookie Table College, which the Today show plugged last week, to Magone’s surprise. The event, which supports the restoration of the Longwell house in Monongahela, is already so popular that this year, Magone is looking to add a second date, to accommodate all those interested in attending.
Magone said the Today show is the most publicity her cookie table Facebook page has received to date, and she was excited the show featured the Mon Valley so prominently.
“It’s just important to me to showcase my hometown and the good things that have happened here. In our area, we have lived through and survived the industrialization. Whenever the mills went down, people left. As former residents moved across the country, they took the cookie table tradition with them. My Facebook page is one way that people feel that they can stay connected to their roots,” she said.
“There’s an expression, ‘You can’t eat a chocolate chip cookie and be mad.’ I think that’s true. Life isn’t all about money and titles and prestige. A cookie is a simple thing. It’s a simple thing, but cookies really make people happy. They really do.”