Judging for this year’s British Pie Awards was held on 25 April at the superb St Mary’s Church, Melton Mowbray, hosted and organised by the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association – a combination certain to ensure suitable dedication to excellence in pies!
And the competition was fierce: over 900 pies created by professional bakers and butchers, a near 50% increase on last year, and impressive evidence of the growing reputation of the Awards, and of the increasing interest in quality in pies.
The Pies, submitted in 18 Classes, underwent a stringent judging process by 93 food experts and celebrity chefs led by Chair Andrew Chisholm. The panel, which included top food critic Charles Campion and food writer Xanthe Clay, TV chefs Rachel Green and Phil Vickery, scored the Pies on a range of criteria including appearance, and texture and taste of both pastry and filling.
The full list of judges can be found at www.britishpieawards.co.uk
Matthew O’Callaghan, Chairman of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association, added: “Pies are one of our nation’s favourite traditional foods and we organise this event to celebrate the quality and heritage of these iconic products. This year’s event was a resounding success and yet again we were impressed with the high quality of the Pies entered by passionate Pie makers.
“Our Judges, who faced the difficult task of choosing the winning Pie out of 900 entries, did a superb job. It is fantastic to see that the value of these Awards is recognised not only by large Pie makers but also by small producers who submitted over 70% of entries.”
Supreme quality
This year’s Supreme Champion is created by Dunkley’s and is a Pub Pie that contains chicken, ham, mushroom and buttered leeks encased in a suet pastry.
The producer of the winning Pie, Mark Beeston who is Dunkley’s pie ambassador, received a trophy and £1,000 prize and commented:
“We are absolutely thrilled that our Pub Pie has been crowned the Supreme Champion at these highly prestigious and creditable Awards. We don’t compromise on the quality of the Pies which we have been making with care and passion for sixty years and to win against so many excellent bakers is an absolute joy!”
See for yourself!
This year’s Pie Awards attracted considerable media interest: TV, radio and press everywhere! Take a look here at the feast and variety of competing pies:
http://www.itv.com/news/central/story/2012-04-25/british-pie-awards/
and
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01gk5bj/East_Midlands_Today_25_04_2012/ (found 15 minutes in)
And Morecambe FC’s form continues!
Last year’s Supreme Winner did not concede defeat easily. Morecambe’s form remains formidable, winning no fewer than four Awards:
Class 8 – Other meat pie (hot) Winner: Pork, Apple & Cider Pie from Morecambe FC
Class 11 – Vegetarian Pie (hot) Winner: Butter Pie from Morecambe FC
Class 16 – Football Pie (hot) Winner: Beef steak & ale pie from Morecambe FC
Special Award to recognise the Small Producer: Morecambe FC
Walker & Son won both the Pork Pie categories; Pieminister showed strongly, winning both Steak & Kidney Pie (hot) and Chicken & any flavour (hot); and Chough Bakery took both pasty categories – Cornish Pasty (cold), and Other pasty (cold) with their chicken & smoked bacon pasty.
All the winners
Class 1 – Melton Mowbray Pork Pie (cold) Winner: Walker & Son with their Large Melton Mowbray Pork Pie
Class 2 – Pork Pie (cold) Winner: Walker & Son with their Large Pork Pie
Class 3 – Steak & Kidney Pie (hot) Winner: Pieminister
Class 4 – Beef & any flavour combination (hot) Winner: Rose Cottages Pies with their Beef & Mushroom Pie
Class 5 – Beef & Ale Pie (hot) Winner: Brocklebys
Class 6 – Lamb Pie (Hot) Winner: lamb, Mint & Rosemary Pie Winner: Robert Bowning Farmer & Butchers
Class 7 – Chicken & any flavour (hot) Winner: Chicken & Bacon from Pieminister
Class 8 – Other meat pie (hot) Winner: Pork, Apple & Cider Pie from Morecambe FC
Class 9 – Savoury pie (cold) Winner: chicken & Ham hock pie from Stuart Smith & Sons Butchers
Class 10 – Fish pie (hot) Winner: smoked fish, salmon & prawn pie Great Walshingham Barns Cafe
Class 11 – Vegetarian Pie (hot) Winner: Butter Pie from Morecambe FC
Class 12 – Cornish Pasty (cold) Winner: Chough Bakery
Class 13 – Other pasty (cold) Winner: chicken & smoked bacon pasty from Chough Bakery
Class 14 – Dessert Pie (cold) Winner: Cherry Pie from Kensey Foods
Class 15 – Pub Pie (hot) Winner: chicken ham mushroom buttered leeks suet pastry pie from Dunkleys
Class 16 – Football Pie (hot) Winner: Beef steak & ale pie from Morecambe FC
Class 17 – Celebration Pie (hot/cold) Winner: Trio of mini pies (venison pie, chicken & mushroom pie & steak pasty from Dunkleys
Class 18 – Bramley Apple Pie (cold) Winner: Kensy Foods
Supreme Champion 2012: Class 15 – Pub Pie (hot) Winner: chicken, ham, mushroom, buttered leeks & suet pastry pie from Dunkleys
Small Producer Award: Morecambe FC