Wiltshire Pubs Bring Home The Bacon In Wadworth Annual Pie Competition.

 Photo: Paul Haynes (Left) and George Stoneman (Right) tuck into their award winning dishes.
 

March 2012 

It’s that time of year again when the Wadworth Brewery in Devizes hosts the final of its pie competition for pubs from all over the Wadworthshire estate. The pubs from across the south of England are competing for the much-coveted award of Wadworth Pie Champion of the year, a prestigious award for any publican and chef in the area.

With 26 pubs entering the competition this year, Scott Ferguson, Food Development Manager at Wadworth, was happy with the turnout and told us about some trends in this year’s competition,

“With 26 separate pubs entering this years competition it was one of the biggest we’ve run. Each pub had to create an innovative and unique recipe for a pie and have it on sale for a month before the cook-off to allow for customer feedback and for a secret inspection by one of our judges. The short-list was then invited to the cook-off at our new Cookery School where the winner was decided.The trends this year included a number of chefs opting to create rabbit pie and stout was also a popular ingredient.”

It turned out to be a great result for the pubs local to the brewery with three of the five short listed being from within 10 miles. The Barge Inn, Seend ,Wiltshire, was crowned the winner with a Beef, Stout & Stilton pie, using Wadworth’s new stout, Corvus as a base for the pie. Paul Haynes the chef at the Barge was delighted with the result,

“After coming runner up in last years competition it feels fantastic to have gone one better this year and been awarded the top spot. The pie has been a huge success within our pub having sold over 200 in last month. Made using home cooked steak, tenderly stewed to give it a delicious tenderness and with pieces of Stilton allowed to melt into the pie during cooking, it gives a nice creamy flavour with the subtle hit of blue cheese. We also used Corvus to make the gravy as its deep and rich flavours perfectly complemented the tasty meat and cheese flavour. Served with hand cut chips and a side of curly kale, its a real heart-warming dish on our menu.”

 In further success for the local area the Crown Inn, in Devizes was awarded the runner-up spot with an unusual pie named “Jewel of the Crown Chicken & Fennel Filo Pie” the only pie in the shortlist to be made from Filo pastry.  George Stoneman, the chef at the Crown Inn explains how he came up with the recipe,

“In the kitchen one day I happened to be making a chicken soup, after adding the fennel to the recipe it occurred to me with a bit of adjusting the dish would taste really nice in a pie. With the addition of smoked bacon and the lightness of filo pastry the dish tastes great. We had some excellent feedback from our customers over the past month and are really very pleased with being awarded the runner-up spot in the competition.”

The panel of judges included Scott Ferguson as well as Andy Cook from butchers, Walter Rose & Son of Devizes, the sponsor of the competition who generously donated hampers as prizes for the winning pub as well as the runner-up.

For more information about the Wadworth brewery call 01380 723361 or visit www.wadworth.co.uk.