It's pie in the sky at Tasty's new digs

"I'm a pie guy," said Charles P. Pizzi, standing on the glassed-in observation deck of the Tasty Baking Co.'s new South Philly plant, enjoying a commanding view of thousands of fresh Tastykake pies on the high-tech assembly line below.

"But," Tasty's president admitted, redirecting his gaze toward another Willy Wonka-style area of gooey good times, "I'm a chocolate-cupcake guy, too."

At yesterday's Daily News preview tour - prior to today's grand opening of the 345,500-square-foot plant in the Philadelphia Navy Yard - a chocoholic reporter asked Pizzi to turn his back while the scribe dived into a bin full of cupcakes that had been rejected by quality inspectors for failing to meet Tasty taste standards.

"Sorry," Pizzi said, laughing, "that's against the law."

Instead, he led the sugar-deprived reporter through the multimedia Tastykake Theater, which - when the bakery opens for public tours next year - will display a collection of vintage ads, including a startlingly slim Charles Barkley about to make a Tasty doughnut disappear into his smile.

Pizzi said that the biggest challenge of moving from the labor-intensive 1920's bakery in Hunting Park to the new, high-tech plant was keeping the old-time flavors in Tastykakes that have made them a part of so many Philadelphians' DNA.

"When you're baking in those same pans for decades, and suddenly you have new, automated equipment," Pizzi said, "you have to make sure that our Krimpet still tastes like our Krimpet and our chocolate cupcake still tastes like our chocolate cupcake. Otherwise, you're in trouble."

Marketing Director Jon Silvon added, "As any good chef will tell you, the years of grease and fire burnt into an old pan matter.

"So even with all the new equipment to make the product, we still have people who watch and taste to make sure everything is perfect on the quality side."

Those people range from Ivy League-educated engineers to Joe Carboy, from Northeast Philadelphia, the products vice president, who oversees the bakery floor with 25 years of Tastykake experience, from his mailroom days to holding every job there was in the Hunting Park plant.

The public tours in 2011 will also include an observation-deck view of the product lab, where new Tastykakes are born and taste-tested.

"These guys are the sommeliers of cake," said publicist Meg Kane, pointing to the lucky dudes in hairnets, setting up their new lab.

"When you taste wine," she said, "you know how you're supposed to spit samples out between tastings? Same with cake."