Masterchef winner reveals top 5 ‘new’ regional pies for British Pie Week
To mark this week’s British Pie Week (3rd – 9th March), a top 5 of new regional pies has been revealed – with a fresh take on the Pembrokeshire Pie topping the list.
As part of an endeavour to create a comprehensive map of UK pies by filling in the gaps to honour British cuisine, a kitchenware brand invited people from across the country to submit ingredient suggestions they felt best represented their region.
With hundreds flooding in, these submissions were then formed into basic recipes to create a newly completed UK pie map – with each key region being assigned a pie – following a live tasting session at Divertimenti Cookery School in London, hosted by MasterChef 2020 winner, Thomas Frake, to help determine an overall winner among the 'new' regional pies. They included:
The Sussex Lob-star Pie – a luxurious shellfish pie featuring lobster caught off the Sussex coast and broccoli with a rich and creamy filling.
The Yorkshire Wensleydale & Leek Pie – combining Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese with sweet leeks in a golden pastry crust.
The Ayrshire Haggis & Neeps Pie – blending haggis with mashed neeps and a peppery gravy alongside a dash of Scottish whisky.
The Pembrokeshire Lamb & Laverbread Pie – a true taste of Wales using tender Welsh lamb with the umami richness of traditional laverbread.
The Armagh Pork, Bramley Apple & Irish Whiskey Pie – featuring Armagh Bramley apples, locally sourced pork and a splash of Irish whiskey.
The tasting event, which was hosted by Swiss kitchenware brand, Zyliss, alongside MasterChef 2020 Winner, Thomas Frake, and cookery author, Jo Pratt, saw guests sample each of the five pies before casting their vote – with the Pembrokeshire Lamb & Laverbread Pie subsequently claiming the crown. Standing out for its rich flavour and authentic representation of Welsh culinary heritage, it offered a fresh spin on the traditional Pastai Penfro.
Commenting on the winning effort, Thomas Frake, said: "The Pembrokeshire Pie was a fitting testament to the tastes of the region – with exceptional Welsh lamb mixed with local favourite laverbread to create a genuinely delicious pie. A worthy winner!"
Looking at the creation of the pie map and the subsequent winner, Heidi Thomas, Head of Marketing at DK Household Brands, which includes Zyliss, said: "The UK's pie history is rich in tradition, with some fantastic regional pies out there. We wanted to celebrate that heritage by filling in the blank spaces as best we could by calling on local people to submit their suggestions. Collating these, we then mapped out potential pie suggestions right across the UK managing to fill in as many gaps as possible, before picking our ‘favourite five’ to pass the live taste test in front of a dedicated foodie audience.”
She added: “Although enjoying five fantastic pies was clearly a tough task, we were able to dig deep and find a winner in the hotly contested yet very deserving Pembrokeshire Pie.”
The full recipes for the top five pies can be found on the Zyliss website, via https://zyliss.co.uk/blogs/recipes/regional-pie-filling-recipes
Heidi Thomas concluded: “Whilst we’ve done our best to represent as broad a swathe of the UK as we can, we were beholden to the suggestions that came in – so we’d be delighted to hear any additional regional pie ingredient suggestions if people are keen to pad out the map even further, or if they’d like an already existing pie in their region to be added and given their appropriate place in the limelight.”
For more information about Zyliss, please visit www.zyliss.co.uk