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Legendary Winners Top 10

  Company Name Address Owner
Gold Rosedale Bakery & Café Flat 9, 215 Rosedale Rd, Albany, AUCKLAND Samraksmey So
Silver Euro Patisserie 1028 Beach Road, Torbay, AUCKLAND Sopheap Long
Bronze Fast & Fresh Bakery 8 Horomatangi Street, TAUPO Lee Ing 
H/C 16th Ave Café 762 Cameron Road, Tauranga South, TAURANGA Cameron McKelvey
5 Kitchen Republic Cafa 32 Bureta Road, Otamoetai, TAURANGA Peggy Zhang
6 Paetiki Bakery 199 Rifle Range Road, TAUPO Lam Ho
7 Sockburn Bakery 146 Main South Road, Sockburn, CHRISTCHURCH Dara Iv
8 Indulge Catering 16 Birmingham Drive, Middleton, CHRISTCHURCH Rachel Jerard
9 Peter Timbs Meats 72 Edgeware Road, St Albans, CHRISTCHURCH Greaham Clark
10 Old Taupo Rd Bakehouse Café 45 Old Taupo Road, Mangakakahi, ROTORUA Vanndy Vit

Conquering king reigns supreme

New Zealand’s baking dynasty now has its king back on the throne with Patrick Lam of Patrick’s Pies Gold Star Bakery in Tauranga winning his eighth Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Award.

In this 25th year of the Pie Awards, Patrick surprised the judges with a perfect Roast Duck, Onion and Mushroom entry in the Gourmet Meat category.

When Patrick’s pie began its judging at NZ Bakels on July 27, celebrity chef judge Al Brown started a ripple of conversation with “I’ve just seen a duck pie and it looks pretty amazing”. Before long media gathered for a sneak peek and around the judging kitchen “duck” spread… “I don’t think we’ve ever had a duck entry before”, “hmm duck, if its cooked right it will be really nice” “duck” “duck”. It just kept going all the way to the Supreme category judging where the judges commented on the ‘flying duck’ decoration on the top of the pie. But it was the tasting round that silenced the room before, “the duck is so moist and all the ingredients combine in perfect balance” “so good!” “They’ve nailed it, beautiful pastry, great flavour”.

And so it came to be, that New Zealand’s most awarded pie maker, Patrick Lam took back his throne to applause and with respect.

NZ Bakels managing director Brent Kersel says: “Each time Patrick has won there have been a different set of judges judging the category and it just goes to show that if you present a stunning pie that ticks all the boxes and outshines every other pie, the judges are going to choose it.

“This year I’d have to say was one of the toughest years’ we’ve seen in the judging because there were so many superb pies to the point that it was too close to call a category winner in several of the categories and they were re-judged. It was that close!”  

“So I’d like to say, well done to all the bakers that entered. The standard of your pie-making is the highest we have ever seen and you should be proud to put those pies in your shop to sell.

“And to Patrick, your hard work and passion to be the winner in our 25th year is an outstanding achievement. You deserve the glory. Your Duck pie was exceptional, as were your Chicken and Vegetable and Vegetarian category gold winners,” says Brent.

Patrick Lam was crowned Pie King, the 25th Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Award winner at a spectacular Awards night in Auckland on August 1.winner-patrick-lam-2023


Almost unbelievable phone call announces award win

When Amie Irwin’s cellphone rang she couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. “You have won the Apprentice Pie Maker of the Year,” said the caller.

“I convinced myself that I’d heard wrong and I really didn’t do much about it until the next day when it was official,” laughs Amie. “I thought I couldn’t possibly have won and I was sure that I’d heard wrong. When my husband found out he went absolutely crazy on Facebook and I got lots of congratulations. It was a very exciting time.”

Amie is in her second year of a NZ Certificate in Trade Baking – Pastry strand at Level 4 working at The Clareville Bakery in the Wairarapa near Carterton. She entered the Apprentice Pie Maker competition with a pie filled with slow cooked lamb shoulder with rosemary, white wine, caramelised onion, and vintage cheese.

“The idea for the filling came from what I cook at home. I was thinking about, what would I like to eat on a cold winter’s day - a nicely cooked roast lamb with rosemary that I’d allow to slowly cook in the oven for ages.” Amie says she also wanted to re-create memories of yesteryear, of being at a grandmother’s house eating cold roast lamb with pickles and cheese for lunch. “Just nice comforting memory-type food.”

Apprentice-Pie-Maker-Amie-Irwin-with-NZ-Bakels-national-sales-manager-Tony-Marshall

When it came to the cheese she wanted a strong flavour to that would come through and complement the richness of the lamb. “Lamb is quite a sweet meat and you’ve got the wine coming through so you really want a nice salty strong cheese and the aged cheddar appealed to me.”

After tweaking the recipe a bit to make sure it would work well in a pie, it got the tick of approval at The Clareville Bakery to go on sale and it’s proved very popular.

Bakery owner, and Amie’s baking tutor Mike Kloeg says: “It’s going really well for a brand new flavour, we’re doing about 40 pies a day. We’re very happy with that and the customers seem to be very happy with it as well.”

With a former career as a chef, Amie was keen to experiment with different flavours before finally settling on the slow cooked lamb. As well as the filling looking inviting, tasting good and working well in the pastry, one of the considerations was in developing a recipe that had to be relatively producible compared to other things that might get a bit messy. “Sometimes too fancy is just too fancy.”

Amie says the competition has really helped her with her apprentice learning and she’s glad she took part.

“I’ve just started my second year in pastry and this was a really good opportunity to spend a bit of time on pastry and really work out how it works and how to make it work in this situation for a really awesome pie. So I feel like I’ve gained a whole lot of knowledge just simply from this competition.”

A requirement of the competition is to make your own pastry. Amie spent time tweaking pastry recipes and the folding process to get the best result. Eventually she came up with a pastry formula that she really liked and felt confident would work well with the filling. 

With that much research and practice going into creating her pie, Mike took the next step by ensuring it arrived for judging in perfect condition.

“We hand delivered it. My mental capacity to handle not knowing what state my products arrive in or even if they do arrive at all, is not great, so hand delivery is the cheapest insurance I can come up with for the product to arrive in its best possible form.  Speaking to the effort that Amie went through to produce what she produced, and the other apprentices, as well as whenever we enter a competition, it takes time and effort, it’s physical and emotional when you’re trying to produce something that you’ve got in your mind what you want it to look like, and there’s multiple factors that need to be taken into account. It’s a very emotional time and for us it’s nothing to spend $500 on flights to make sure that the product arrives safe and sound,” says Mike.

“When you’re entering a competition it’s a bit like entering the Olympics. You put your heart and soul into that particular product for a particular time with a lot of extra care and time spent on making something as beautiful as possible,” says Mike.

Amie says when it came to choosing which strand to study first for her qualification it was a hard choice because she liked the idea of the bread strand as well, but with another apprentice studying bread she felt pastry was a good strand to complement the business. It’s turned out to be an exciting choice with Amie also helping with the entry in the Baking NZ Iconic Custard Square/Vanilla Slice competition which The Clareville Bakery went on to win.

“We’ve just entered the custard square competition which we made beautiful puff pastry for and we went on to win best in New Zealand,” say Amie.

The Clareville Bakery offers a large selection of pastry products from croissants, Danishes and canelé to crackers, cronuts and of course award-winning pies. It’s most famous pie, the lamb cutlet and kumara mash, won the Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Award in 2014 so it seems rather fitting that Mike is passing on his skills to the next generation of bakers.  Another of his apprentices, Amy Bryant placed fourth in the Apprentice Pie Maker Awards with a braised beef, streaky bacon, kumara mash, and cheese pie.

Amie says working in an industry that she loves doesn’t feel like work. She has a young family and being a baker fits in well with family life.

Mike says: “The likes of Amie and Amy don’t come around every day and having them on our team is great. One of our mottos in the bakery is, ‘always try to better your best’ and that’s something that we try to keep at the forefront of all our products and include in our culture. Always be challenging and critiquing our products. Everyone in the bakery whether an apprentice or a baker should be allowed to comment, critique and discuss our products with the idea of constantly challenging ourselves and what we are doing. When Amie and Amy take that onboard and they understand that idea of how can we do better than we did yesterday, when they grasp that it is one of the things that contributes to their success.”

They also need to have a love of food and a willingness to learn, and Mike says that makes the job a lot easier in terms of motivation.

It has been very satisfying for him to see Amie and Amy do so well in the Apprentice Pie Maker of the Year.  And as their teacher, he says his goal for all his staff is that they become better than he is.  

Apprentice Pie Maker Amie Irwin with NZ Bakels national sales manager Tony Marshall


 Apprentice Pie Maker results

 1st: Amie Irwin (The Clareville Bakery)

Slow cooked lamb shoulder with rosemary, white wine, caramelised onion, and vintage cheese.

2nd: Beau Corric (Euro Patisserie Torbay)

Slow cooked venison, roasted vegetables, and cheese.

Apprentice Pie Award judging for results article

3rd: Connor Jones (The Baker Tirau)

BBQ whiskey brisket and jalapeno cheese.

4th: Amy Bryant (The Clareville Bakery)

Braised beef, streaky bacon, kumara mash, and cheese.

5th: John Matthew Silverio (Kai Pai Bakery)

Chicken, leek, bacon, and mushroom.

6th: Sophie Hocking-Hemmington (Bakery 22)

Mince, cheese, relish, mustard, onion, and pickle (cheeseburger).

7th: Brent Philpott (Kai Pai Bakery)

Pork belly, roasted vegetables, and creamy white sauce.

8th: Korbin Haeata-Fenwick (Rosebowl Bakery and Café)

Roast chicken, pumpkin, chicken gravy, sweet corn, peas, and cheese.

9th: Joanne Sands (Kai Pai Bakery)

Streak, mushroom, and read wine.

10th: Joshua Pascual (Kai Pai Bakery)

Roast chicken and vegetables with curry.

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