A TWYFORD bakery has been making waves across the country after winning five awards in a prestigious competition.
Amy and Philip Smith, co-owners of Rural Pie Co., came home with a handful of prizes at last week’s British Pie Awards.
The national contest is held to celebrate the best of pie across the nation – and Mrs Smith said the results left her speechless.
“We’re absolutely thrilled,” she said. “[The prizes] are not what we expected, especially coming out of the pandemic when the whole world has been through such a rough time.
“To walk away with not just something but five awards feels surreal.”
At this year’s ceremony, Rural Pie Co. won two bronze awards, two silver and one highly commended.
It was also one of the 69 companies to be invited to the awards lunch on Friday, September 17 – an honour reserved for the best pie makers in the country.
Mr and Mrs Smith entered a range of dishes this year which are often available in store. These included the Rams Pie which won silver and highly commended in the Sports Pie category, a chicken and chorizo pie which received a bronze award, and its Squiggle Giggle Piggle dish which was also awarded silver.
This is the second time the Rams Pie, which was created for Rams Rugby Club, has been crowned at the top of its class after being highly commended last year.
“People might just think it’s the same pie so of course it’ll win again, but we’re really pleased it was awarded this year,” Mrs Smith said.
“The judges often look for different pies, for example this year they wanted something traditional, so to win for two consecutive years shows a wide audience agree its a good pie.”
The co-owner said it was difficult deciding which pies to enter, after winning seven awards in 2020’s ceremony.
“It’s quite a process,” she explained. “The judges will consider a lot of things, including pastry consistency and how the gravy oozes out.
“After deciding which pies to enter, we then had to drive two and a half hours to deliver them to Melton Mowbray which was a stressful drive, making sure we didn’t hit speed bumps too harshly and kept the food to temperature.”
Mrs Smith has since thanked customers for supporting Rural Pie Co. throughout the pandemic so far.
“Thank you again to everybody for helping us to get to this point,” she said. “We couldn’t be here without everybody walking through the door and supporting us.
“We’re only still here because of Twyford’s residents and everyone else around us, without whom we wouldn’t have entered the British Pie Awards in the first place.”
British Pie Awards aside, Rural Pie Co. has also been making a name for itself up north after a customer took a selection of pies to Skye last week.
Ms Smith said: “The customer wanted to take some up to enjoy during a break.
“To see people enjoying our pies in other parts of the country is pretty awesome and if people enjoy what we do enough to not go on holiday without us is comical, but also brilliant.”
Mr and Mrs Smith are back serving pies in Twyford following the awards ceremony.
They are also hosting a MacMillan Coffee morning tomorrow (Friday, September 24).
For more information, visit: www.ruralpieco.co.uk
