Pie’s the limit as Valley butcher strikes gold
AWHITWORTH butcher is celebrating after being crowned the county’s champion pork pie maker.
Darren Laws, who runs DT Laws butchers and deli in Haslingden, said he was ‘absolutely chuffed’ that his business has been handed the ‘gold award’ by the Lancashire Pork Pie Appreciation Society.
The inaugural awards are described as ‘the culmination of a year-long search to find the best pork pies in Lancashire.’
The society had picked the five tastiest pork pies from across the county which were then pitted against each other as 50 judges sampled each and voted for their favourite.
Darren, of Cowm Park Way, said he excitedly contacted his 10 staff members as soon as their pork pie was announced as ‘supreme champion.’
The dad-of-two said: “We won by an overwhelming majority against some great competition, we were really chuffed. At first my staff couldn’t believe that we’d actually come top, until I sent them a picture of the award. They thought it was fantastic, everyone’s thrilled.
“We’ve got the trophy up in the shop now so everybody can see it.”
Darren added his two full-time bakers do a ‘brilliant job’ in making their pies as tasty as possible.
He said: “We put quality stuff in the pastry and quality pork in, we think our pastry has a nice crunch to it. Hopefully we have succeeded in making the most tasty pie in Lancashire!”
Darren began training as a butcher aged just 16 and has run the Blackburn Road butchers for 24 years, recently bringing his 21-year-old son Greg into the business.
He said: “I started on my own just selling quality meat and it’s worked its way up from that. About 12 years ago I took over the shop next door and we started selling pies, now we sell thousands every week.”
A spokesman for the Lancashire Pork Pie Appreciation Society said: “The most frequently heard comment on the pies was that all five were superb.
“There has to be a winner though, and on the night DT Laws of Haslingden were the clear winners and become our inaugural Supreme Champion.”
Walmsleys Butchers in Ramsbottom was also one of the five finalists at the awards, which raised £600 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
The awards took place at The Black Bull in Edgworth, on Saturday, February 17.