Last week Kells Kitchen of Amberley picked up a bronze medal in the Cafe Boutique section of the Bakels NZ Pie Awards with a smoked brisket and cheese pie.
‘‘I was surprised on Monday night, when the Bakels rep phoned to say I needed to make more brisket and cheese pies because I would be selling out of them the next day when it was announced we had won a bronze medal,’’ Kelly Northover, Kells’ owner/ baker says.
‘‘I really didn’t expect it because I wasn’t happy with the ones we sent up to the competition.’’
She says she felt at the time of lodging her entry, the pies she submitted were not up to the high standards she and her all-women crew hold for their pies.
‘‘I was a little bit worried about them and I knew I had run out of time to make another batch, so we packed them up and sent them off as is, and hoped for the best.’’
She says she had forgotten all about the competition until people started calling to congratulate her.
‘‘I’ve been a baker since I was 15 and have entered the competition every year with no wins.
‘‘This year was our sixth time entering as Kells Kitchen, and we thought it might be nice to try something new other than the usual meat pies.
‘‘I like beef brisket, so I was just winging it when we grabbed some Silver Fern Farms Beef Brisket and slow cooked it for about 16 hours, then we added it to one of our pie cases with some pickles to see how it went.’’
She says customers didn’t initially like the brisket and pickle pies, so she dropped out the pickles and grated in some cheddar cheese instead.
‘‘That made all the difference; everyone liked it from then on. It became very popular, and if you walked by our kitchen at night, you could smell the smoked brisket cooking away.’’
Kelly said they did indeed sell out of the pies the next day.
This year, 520 bakeries entered the Bakels NZ Pie Award, submitting 4600 pies in 11 categories for the judges to sample.
Nine of the top medals went to Auckland bakeries.
In the Bakels NZ Pie Awards Steak and Gravy section, Arlyn Thompson from Artisan by Rangiora Bakery, scored an eighth place and also earned a fifth place in the Vegetarian category with her roasted pumpkin and kumara pie.
In the Apprentice Pie Maker competition, Creag Fraser from Rangiora Bakery was placed fifth with a chicken with a spiced apricot sauce pie; his colleague Brooke Rowbotham, earned sixth place for her chicken with leek, bacon, and parmesan pie.
Earlier in July, Harris Farms of Cheviot had received a gold medal in the New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards for its free-farmed loin bacon, while Cattermoles Butchery of Kaiapoi won a silver medal for its dry-cured middle bacon and a bronze for its dry-cured shoulder bacon.
