General News
15 September, 2022
Parkview pies bring home national gold
Maryborough’s own Parkview Bakery has been crowned as having the best chicken pie in the country, bringing home a swag of eight gold and silver awards from last week’s Official Great Aussie Pie Competition. Held at the Fine Food Australi...
Maryborough’s own Parkview Bakery has been crowned as having the best chicken pie in the country, bringing home a swag of eight gold and silver awards from last week’s Official Great Aussie Pie Competition.
Held at the Fine Food Australia festival at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, the 33rd Official Great Aussie Pie Competition saw Parkview Bakery come home with three gold medals and five silvers.
The bakery’s Moroccan Chicken Pie, which received gold, was named the best chicken pie in the country, with their goat pie and plain steak pie also receiving gold.
Parkview’s chunky steak pie, brekkie pie, chunky steak, pea and potato pie, bushman’s and lamb and veggie pies all received silver awards.
Parkview Bakery owner Garry Higgins said the business was rapt to receive so many awards, particularly being named as having the best chicken pie in the country.
“This is the first time we’ve entered the competition for a number of years and in 2009 we were runner-up for our plain pie,” he said.
“We entered eight pies and got gold for three and silver for the rest which we’re really happy with — bronze is the industry standard, silver is above that and gold is excellent so we’re very happy.
“It’s really good not only for our business but also the town, people travel to try award winning pies like we now have.”
More than 600 pies from over 300 bakeries nationally were entered into last week’s awards and Mr Higgins said the strong performance was the result of a team effort, particularly from bakers Mason Tranter and Tyson Pomeroy.
“It was really an effort by those two in bringing it all together, it was a great team effort and we’re really proud to see two young people do so well through these awards,” he said.
“Increasing our pie range has made a lot of difference to our business, we’ve got a whole range of options now for customers and that’s really our point of difference.
“A lot of that is thanks to Mason and Tyson, they’re younger guys who have new ideas and want to try things out and we couldn’t be happier with the result.”
Having the bakery named as the home of the best chicken pie in the country is something Mr Tranter said he was particularly proud of.
“It is quite a tough competition, especially when you consider the whole country is involved,” he said.
“It’s such a big title — Australia’s best chicken pie is something we’re really proud of.
“We’ve been trying new flavours and new recipes to separate us from the other bakeries in the area and it’s really set us apart.”
Mr Pomeroy said the awards were a nod to the bakery’s work in bringing new things to the table.
“To get so many awards is very reassuring, it’s good to know the work we’re putting in is paying off and a lot of hard work goes into it,” he said.
“There’s talk about entering pasties next and I reckon we’d do pretty well with that as well, we’ve got a good product.”