Pie award judges taste slices of heaven

A venison, mushroom, bacon and cheese pie from Taupo proved the perfect combination of flavours for judges who voted it winner of the 2017 NZ Bakels Supreme Pie Award in Auckland last night.

Baked by Lee Ing of Taupo’s Fast & Fresh Bakery, the supreme pie came out on top of 5696 entries during judging last week.

Rotorua’s Better Quality Pies received a highly commended for their rhubarb, apple and lime pie in the Gourmet Fruit category.

NZ Bakels managing director, Brent Kersel, said the supreme winner first caught the judges’ attention when it won gold in the Gourmet Meat category before going on to the final judging stage.

“It looked great out of the oven, pastry rich and golden with the filling venison, mushroom, bacon and cheese combining well together. The venison had great flavour and texture,” he said.

This year’s celebrity chef judge, Sean Connolly, said cooking venison in a pie to where the end result was so moist and succulent demonstrated a high level of culinary skills.

“The flavours worked together to just melt in the mouth with a perfect pastry casing.”

Ing bought Fast & Fresh Bakery 14 months ago after working there for two years learning all he could from the previous owner.

Born in Cambodia, he came to New Zealand 12 years ago to start a new life and discovered he had a natural flair for baking when he was working in Tun Bakery in Taranaki.

Kersel said entries this year, the 21st year of the competition, were up by 10 per cent with the two largest categories, Mince and Cheese and Steak and Cheese, going head-tohead with 417 pies in each category, leaving judges the enormous task of finding bronze, silver and gold award winners among them.

In the Gourmet Meat category, flavours and pastry styles kept judging fresh and interesting with breakfast pies filled with the likes of spaghetti, bacon, onion and even potato nuggets through to a goat vindaloo pie, a seafood pie with octopus, and a lamb cheeks with vegetables, herbs and anchovies pie.

The Vegetarian category boasted vibrantly filled pies and new ingredients including yams, swede and sugar snap peas. Wholemeal and spelt pastries were emerging in this category, while glutenfree pastry was growing in popularity in the Cafe Boutique category.

“A number of entries this year have used their imagination and flair to make the finished product look different and exciting,” said Kersel.

“Everyone started talking about the ‘kiwi’ pie when its box was opened. The pie top featured a kiwi with koru patterns made out of poppy seeds. The pastry was even For a full list of the winners go to nzherald.co.nz moulded into fern leaves. “In the Gourmet Fruit category the presentation of the pies was stunning. One pie, a pineapple, lime and coconut creation, actually looked like a slice of pineapple.” NZ Bakels launched the Supreme Pie Awards in 1996 to improve the quality of pies and pastry.