Pie me!
Last Wednesday morning BBC Radio Leicester’s Ben Jackson and my fellow Radio Leicester Food Friday cook Penny, met at my cottage to prepare ourselves for a morning of pie eating. We had the enviable job of judging Best Pie in the first Melton Mowbray pie competition open to all the local pubs, cafes and restaurants. You can hear us eating and judging some of the pies on Ben’s show (about 1hr 41mins in).
Don’t we all looks so glamorous in our official pie eating garments?
It took over an hour to work our way through the pies that had made it onto the judging table and guided by Stephen Hallam, Melton Mowbray pie maker extraordinaire, we carefully analysed each pie on a number of strict criteria such as pastry thickness, texture of filling, amount of filling, quality of bake and of course flavour. Some pies that scored highly on one scored low on others and before the figures were added up for each one we really had no idea which one was going to win.
Stephen Hallam and a couple of the pies
Penny and the winning pie
The winner turned out to be Miss B’s Tearooms‘ Hedgerow pie that had a viennese pastry top and filled with blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and elderflower. It was a cracking little pie and served with a big dollop of clotted cream it was quite frankly bloody lovely!
The pie competition was the warm up for the weekend’s Pie Fest which took over the town’s market place. I headed there on Saturday for a couple of hours in the sunshine to talk and eat pie…
Ian from Hartland Pies with his kickass Melton Mowbray pork pie topped with his very own chilli jam
Luckily I arrived just as the festival opened and headed to Hartland Pies for some breakfast. Their pork and black pudding pie was the perfect solution to my breakfast yearnings but I was totally blown away by his chilli jam topped Melton Mowbray. His pastry is just out of this world, he did tell me the secret but if I told you I would obviously have to kill you so you will just have to buy one and try and work it out yourself 🙂 They had sold out of pies just 2 hours later!
The lovely Louise from Miss B’s Tearoom with her trophy
Food historian Matthew O’Callaghan gave talks about the history of the pie
Stephen Hallam gave Melton Mowbray pie making demos outside his shop all weekend
How to hand raise a pie
Jazz and pies…nice
Gorgeous freehand sewing machine tea cosies made by Createry Studio
Hey ladies, how YOU doin’? Mark works his magic
It was an ace way to spend a couple of hours and I’m gutted I had to dash off as I really quite fancied an afternoon sat in the sunshine eating pies, drinking ale and listening to jazz, but then again there is always next year and after the success of this year I reckon it’s going to be bigger and better again.
A Cottage Kitchen 
Drooling over the sound of ‘Hedgerow pie’ next time I’m visiting my folks in Melton, I’ll be seeking one out, as well as my usual pork pies and cheese- lord knows what they make of my hand luggage at customs!!
Ha! Yes whenever I travel anywhere my luggage is about 70% food and booze on the way back!
The pie with Black pudding sounds great, Hedgrow pie sounds different but great
!
I love your blog on Pie Fest Hazel – the pics are fab! Thank you x
Great pics, brings back fond memories of a lovely day
Thanks Elaine, I’m already looking forward to the next one!
I found it really disappointing. Especially when you consider how great the weekly market is, Melton show, the country fair and the East Mids Food and Drink festival is AMAZING. It was the biggest damp squib since the agricultural show IMO but I am ever hopeful next year will be bigger and better.
Melton has so many foodie events though which is a VERY cool thing indeed.
My first thoughts when I got there was “is this it?” so I can see what you mean. I had such a lovely time talking food and eating pies that I very quickly forgot how small it was. The East Mids Food and Drink Fest is massive but sadly it charges HUGE amounts for stallholders so the small independent local businesses are shut out from exhibiting which is why it was so lovely to see the local food stands at Pie Fest doing so well. It was great to see an event being held in the town that supports the small independents and is open to all to come and enjoy it for free, we definitely need more events like this for the town.
Oh I didn’t know that about the charges for the stands; a bit cheeky when you consider how much they charge for entry. I hope next year is bigger and better then. Brockleby was noticeable by their absence though which was a bit odd I thought?