North East pub grub named among the best at British Pie Awards

PUB grub makers the New Zealand Gourmet Pie Company has seen its steak and cheese offering named among the country’s best.

The prize pastry, from Corbridge in Northumberland, was one of 983 entered into this year’s British Pie Awards, held in Melton Mowbray – and made the top three in the Pub Pie Class.

NZGP Co spokesman Jon Liddicoat, said he hoped the gong would encourage more drinkers to try the firm’s pies, which are available at the Head of Steam owned Central pub, on Half Moon Road in Gateshead.

“We put a lot of hard work into making the best pies possible and for our steak and cheese pie to be recognised at these highly prestigious awards amongst other excellent bakers is such an honour,” said Jon.

All the pies in the contest underwent stringent judging by over 100 food experts and celebrity chefs. The panel, which included top food critic Charles Campion, TV chef Rachel Green and BBC sports commentator Jonathan Agnew, scored the food on a range of criteria including appearance, texture and taste of both pastry and filling.

Gavin Sinclair, manager of The Central said he was delighted to see the company win.

“We are over the moon that NZGPCo have been recognised nationally for the quality of their brilliant pies,” he said.

“Our pub sells lots and lots of them, right across the large range they offer – and the Steak and Cheese pie is our biggest seller.

“NZGPCo are great people to work with, going out of their way to support their customers any way they can. We recently had a Pie Festival in which NZGPCo made forty different fillings for mini-pies they produced for us.

“There were some weird and wonderful fillings devised – but the festival was a great success and we sold literally thousands of mini-pies over the festival period.”

Following the award NZGPCo is on the expansion trail – taking over an artisan bakery and planning to start producing bread.