British Pie Awards now open for entries

The event, organised by the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association, will take place in St. Mary's Church, Melton Mowbray, on Wednesday 25th April 2012. In 2011, the awards received over 600 entries from 118 bakers and butchers and the organisers are expecting a similar level of interest in 2012. The pies, which will be judged by pie experts, celebrity chefs and food writers, can now be entered in 18 classes. Seven new categories have been introduced including beef and ale pie, beef and any flavour combination pie, lamb pie, chicken and any flavour combination pie, other meat pie, pub pie and celebration pie. The Supreme Champion 2011, Graham Amison from Morecombe Football Club, who was crowned for his chicken, ham and leek football pie, commented: "Winning the title of Supreme Champion at such competitive awards in 2011 was, without doubt, the proudest moment of my 15 year career as a chef. "As a result, we have received great levels of media coverage which has helped to raise even further the profile of this popular product among our loyal football customers who recognise the quality of our Pies." Matthew O'Callaghan, chairman of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association, added: "The British Pie Awards provide a fantastic opportunity for Pie makers of all sizes throughout the country to demonstrate the top quality of their British produce. "We have decided to introduce new classes to allow even more producers to enter their Pies in these highly recognised Awards and we look forward to receiving products representing the variety and quality that British Pie makers offer." "As supporters of the EU protected name scheme, we hope that the traditional bramley apple pie filling will soon be designated as a protected food by the European Commission. To celebrate this, we have renamed the Apple Pie class, which had always specified a Bramley apple filling, as the Bramley Apple Pie class. "Fillings for this pie will have to comply with the TSG specification for the filling available on the Defra website. Other protected foods featuring in the awards are the Cornish pasty and the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie, both of which they have their own class."