The British Pie Awards 2017 will open for entry next week, on 16th November, and will allow pie makers to enter online for the first time.
Pie enthusiasts from across the UK are invited to enter the 2017 British Pie Awards, which will take place on 8th March in Melton Mowbray, known as the pork pie capital.
This year, and for the first time since the awards began, pie makers will be able to apply online on the British Pie Awards website, which will go live next week.
The British Pie Awards will occur during British Pie Week which will run from 6th to 13th March and will celebrate all kinds of pies, which are seen as an icon for British cuisine.
All pies must fit into one of the 21 pre-assigned classes and must also be commercially available in the UK.
Each year the awards has a themed class that encourages pie makers to get creative. For the 2017 awards the themed class will be ‘Regional Pie’.
This category will welcome everything from Forfar Bridie in Scotland, to the Midland’s Bedfordshire Clanger, and will be judged on the makers’ creativity.
The 2016 awards saw 816 pies entered from 132 professional bakers, butchers and chefs, and were judged by more than 100 top pie aficionados.
Matthew O’Callaghan, chairman of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association, said: “Each year we’re impressed by the increasing number of entries, all of which are of a superb calibre– we can’t wait to taste this year’s offerings.
John Nicholl of Huddleston’s Butchers, who won the title of Supreme Champion of the 2016 British Pie Awards, said: “In over 20 years of entering competitions we have never had the level of exposure that the British Pie Awards has given us - our business has gone from strength to strength and it’s been fantastic to see our reputation grow as a result.
“My advice to anybody who is thinking of entering the awards this year is to go ahead and apply - you could be missing a golden opportunity!”
For more information visit www.britishpieawards.co.uk.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
