Head baker Philip Kennedy and chef Shaun Sawyers with their award-winning pies.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Mawson’s Bakery Café in Euroa has proven its pies are among Australia’s best, taking home two gold medals and nine silvers at last week’s Baking Industry Trade Show in Sydney.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The prestigious event saw an estimated 2000 pies entered from across the country, with entries judged both cold and hot — the final scores combining to determine the nation’s top pies and pasties.
Mawson’s entered 11 pies in the competition and took home 11 awards.
Only two per cent of entries earned gold, making the victories of Mawson’s all the more impressive.
Its gold award-winning honey bourbon pulled pork and smoked bacon and vintage cheese pies impressed the judges, and it wasn’t by chance.
Head baker Philip Kennedy said the team had spent weeks refining the entries.
“Pretty much just trying to pick the nicest pies you can … perfecting puff pastry, making sure the baked quality is right, flakes are nice, making sure the ingredients are always exactly the same,” he said.
“I always choose certain pies that I know I’ve put a lot of effort into, and also ones that people recommend or are top sellers.”
Chef Shaun Sawyers agreed that attention to detail was crucial.
“Consistency is a big thing — and making sure they are nicely packed to travel up there with lots of ice packs,” he said.
Store owners Gayle and David Mawson, even drove the pies up themselves in a giant cooler, ensuring they arrived in top condition.
“We left on Tuesday last week with the pies frozen,” Gayle said.
“Once you arrive, you take the pies to a register so they get a number from admin — that way there’s no bias on where they’re from.”
Each pie is then judged cold and hot.
“There’s a lot of craft in making a pie — structurally and stability-wise,” Gayle said.
Importantly, Mawson’s doesn’t make special pies for competition.
“What we sell in the bakery is what we enter,” Gayle said.
“We don’t create anything new — we pull what’s already on the rack.
“Our quality is up there for all of them.”
Philip said the wins reflected the entire team’s hard work.
“The staff are really good too — we all have a taste and decide what could be better or what needs to be changed,” he said.
“They’ve all helped out in the creation of it in one way or another.”
And beyond the awards, the recognition helps put Euroa on the map.
“It helps to promote our little town — to get people to pull off the highway and pop by,” Gayle said.
Shepparton’s North End Bakehouse took out a category win at the Baking Industry Trade Show in Sydney for the best Roast Vege Pastie in Australia.
The bakery also earned a gold medal for their garlic prawn and coconut rice pie, along with an impressive haul of silver medals for: plain mince pie, chunky steak and pepper, cheese, broccoli and cauliflower, chunky mushroom, steak and Frangelico, lamb souvlaki, Latino and vegetarian pastie
North End Bakehouse also received a bronze medal for its traditional pastie.
Gold-winning pies — the honey bourbon pulled pork pie and the smoked bacon and vintage cheese pie. The front nine are a selection of silver-winning pies — slow cooked beef and mushroom, chunky pepper, slow cooked beef jalepeño and cheese, slow cooked beef, chunky pie, green Thai chicken curry, chicken cranberry and brie, hoisin Peking duck and chicken satay.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
7°C