There is nothing better than a freshly-baked pie, served piping hot with golden, flakey pastry and a delicious filling, but the flavour that has been crowned ‘Australia’s Best Pie’ is guaranteed to divide opinion.
The best pie in the country was officially selected at an awards ceremony last week, and it was Victoria-based Country Cob Bakery who walked away with the highest accolade, thanks to their gourmet Satay Seafood pie.
Baker Chan Khun, who moved to Australia from his home country of Cambodia in 2004, dreamed up the winning pie, which beat off 1,700 rival pies and pastries at the annual Baking Industry Trade Show, which took place at the Gold Coast Turf Club last Thursday.
It isn’t the first time that the award-winning baker has been rewarded for his efforts, as the bakery bagged the prize for best plain mince pie last year. The Kyneton bakery also walked away with 13 medals – 10 gold, two silver and one bronze – at the Great Aussie Pie Competition earlier this year, as well as the Tom Lindsay Pepper Steak award.
Mr. Khun, who has been at the helm of the bakery for just over two years, previously tole the Herald Sun: “We are always searching for new recipes and experimenting, whether it’s a sales rep or a customer, just to taste test. We ask for feedback each year from the judges so we are always trying to improve.”
The bakery’s sweet treats have also earned them praise, having previously been awarded the title of ‘Great Australian Vanilla Slice’.
The Cambodian-born baker said he got his first taste of a real Aussie pie whilst working in a pie factory in Melbourne, he said: ‘All the workers went down to this portable van for their lunch and kept coming back with these pies. I finally had one and it was a completely different taste — there’s no pastries in Cambodia.”
Earlier this year a fight broke out online between a customer and bakery, after pie-lover Branch Latroll slated his local bakery online after he claimed he was served a cold pie and an expired iced coffee. He wrote a scathing review on the Facebook page for Howard Spings Bakery, in the Northern Territory, writing that he would be avoiding the store until it “got it’s sh** together.”