Western Morning News (Saturday)
CELEBRATE BRITISH PIE WEEK
Food & Drink
What’s in a pie? I don’t mean what is in any one particular pie – I mean: what is it about a sweet or savoury filling entombed in pastry that is capable of making just about any hungry-ish person drool with absolute longing?
It’s an equation – like “pi times radius squared” – and it is one that has been forming a crust around the thoughts of humankind for a very long time. The Life of Pie goes back more than 5000 years – historians have discovered that ancient Egyptians were wrapping edible fillings in pastry even before they were entombing pharaohs in pyramids.
Fast forward to March 2021 and Monday heralds the beginning of the annual British Pie Week, which could mean millions of people will be pondering the magical edible equation: What is it about pie?
For pies really can reach the parts that other morsels fail impress. They are capable of warming even the most frozen inner man or woman – which is one reason you often find them being sold by the thousand at large sports events.
Pies have the ability to soothe and to make content just about anyone able to swallow anything more than a crumb (which is why the average Brit scoffs a whopping 2,160 pies over their adult lifetime, according to a recent study). There is indeed something about pie which no other simple morsel can boast. It’s not only that an individual pie is capable of containing the equivalent of an entire meal (gravy included) which you can hold with easy in the palm of your hand. The real magic surely comes from the word “entombed”…
Because as the filling (savoury or sweet) is more or less sealed by pastry, its flavour intensifies during the cooking. It steams in its own juices. When that happens – as it inevitably will in the hands of an experienced pie-master – an alchemy can occur... There’s a certain unique silkiness of content – a highly flavoured luxuriance which the contents would not be able to muster minus the duvet, or blanket, of rich crumbly pastry.
But don’t take my word for any of this. Just like Pi-R-squared has always been a little too taxing for my brain, so is the mysterious equation behind crusted and crimped perfection. However, I do know a man who does understand the arcane secrets of the Life of Pie.
He is Chunk of Devon’s Simon Bryon-Edmond. In 16 years of operations the Ottery St Mary pie and pasty company has won just about every pie-related competition in the land. At present two of their pies are gold winning Champions from the 2020 British Pie Awards. Their pies and pasties have won almost too many Taste of the West Gold Medals to count.
In short, some would say that Chunk of Devon has become the benchmark pie-maker to the nation. In normal times you will find their creations on sale at iconic places such as Wembley Stadium, Wimbledon and the home of cricket at Lords, as well as at the rugby grounds of Exeter Chiefs, Saracens and the like...
And even now, during the lockdowns, Chunk pies have been in huge demand, selling through
the small independent food shops in this region and beyond.
“Apart from Waitrose in the Westcountry, we don’t really do supermarkets, preferring instead to supply the smaller independent food shops – and they have been very popular places during the pandemic,” says Simon, who is so passionate about pies he often jokes: “Whoever originally invented the masterpiece which is the pie should have been adorned with a George Cross, perhaps or maybe a Nobel Pie-ce prize!”
But what, I asked him this week, is it about a pie that makes this quintessential morsel so beloved?
“Do you know, no journalist has ever asked me that before,” he laughed. “I get a bit fed up because pies so often get a bad press – people laugh and talk about pies making you fat. Funny how cupcakes never attract the same attention, even if they are packed with sugar, which really can make you fat.
“But you are right. There is something extra special about a good pie – succulent chunks of meat bathed in rich naturally made gravies, with rich ales and wines and wrapped in a sensational buttery pastry... What’s not to like? It’s also to do with the comfort-food thing. Pie and mash and peas – even the thought of it makes you feel good.
“I think people associate good times with pies. We sell huge numbers at sports events and other big occasions when people are out and about enjoying themselves. And you can eat a pie anywhere, can’t you? My first date with my wife Suzi featured pie and chips – that’s what we ate in her old fashioned Mini on Kingsbridge quay. I’ll never forget it.”
Not long after that, Chunk of Devon was born out of the back of a small butcher’s shop in a Devon village. But it was in 2006 that Simon and Suzi Bryon-Edmond really got into full pie-making gear. “We had an existing catering business but we were having difficulty in finding good pies – and we had a belief that food should be special, tasty and natural.
“With our catering background and the fact that we’d won a stash of awards, we were after a new challenge – and both of us loved pies,” Simon told me.
“In 2008, we entered our first regional awards and were delighted to do really well. Of course, we had ups and downs in the first couple of years, but our passion – bordering on obsession – was to make special, tasty, natural products, and that has never wavered!
“It is true to say that we are now one of the country’s most awarded pie and pasty makers. In 2019 we hit national headlines by winning the ‘Britain’s Best Cornish Pasty’ award – and that was for the second time! Our Cornish counterparts weren’t too happy. The pasty has also been awarded 10 consecutive Great Taste Awards.
“Awards are important,” says Simon. “Altogether we have won more 175 awards across our range of pies and pasties, and that puts us on the map. Let’s face it, there are pies in this world which perhaps don’t have the magic equation you’re talking about in your article.
“People ask how we manage to be such serial winners. The answer is that we believe in sourcing top quality ingredients as locally as possible – butter versus margarine, for example. We back cows over chemists, especially here, especially in the South West! When you’ve got fantastic natural produce why spoil the flavours with additives and other junk? So we don’t.”
Chunk of Devon now make a range of 12 pies (including four vegan) and eight pasties – and they are all seriously good, as anyone who has sampled the steak, stilton and mushroom pie will tell you. It won Gold at the British pie awards last year.
According to the organisers of British Pie Week, more than three quarters of this country’s population consumes at least one filling encased in pastry per month – so, whether we make a pie ourselves or buy one in from a local shop or online, we really ought to make sure it’s a good one.
Succulent chunks of meat bathed in rich ales and wines and wrapped in a sensational buttery pastry... SIMON BRYON-EDMOND