Wednesday 22 April 2015

British Pie Awards 2015 - Live!

British Pie Awards 2014 - Church
The home of the British Pie Awards

The day of the British Pie Awards has arrived! Held in St Mary’s Church in the heart of Melton Mowbray, it is a spectacular setting in the home of the pork pie. The sun is shining and around 100 judges are making their way to the venue to rate over 800 pies from across Britain and beyond. Of course you won't be surprised to know we've been called up to judge again this year, having been a judge at the British Pie Awards last year and volunteer helpers at the awards in 2013.


Yes, following Pierateer Tim's judging debut last year, we have been called in again to lend our pie rating skills to the com-pie-tition, alongside TV chef Andy Bates, food critic Charles Campion and food writer Rachel Green. And while the British Pie Awards use a significantly different set of criteria to us, rather than the 7 Cs of pie rating that we have used to rate 500 pies on Pierate, there are very few pie experts they could call on with more ex-pie-rience than us when it comes to the pie-fect pie judge!

This year Rob, Sam and Tim all headed over to Melton Mowbray and recorded what was happening in their live blog posts below and on Twitter. While the event is now over you can still catch up below with what happened at the British Pie Awards 2015 - Live


You can now read our review of the British Pie Awards 2015, including the thoughts of judge and Pierateer Sam!


8.00 - The lads were up and ready to go for the British Pie Awards 2015!

9.22 - The train is setting off from Birmingham to Melton Mowbray with Pierateers Rob, Sam and Tim on board. You can imagine the excitement as this yearly festival of pie is only hours away from kicking off!

9.37 - You'll have seen on twitter last night that we Pierateers prepared in the only way we know how... by eating pies together!

10.33 - Lack of phone signal on the train to Melton Mowbray but we've arrived and the town is looking glorious in the spring sunshine!

10.40 - The short wander up the road to the Church is complete! We're ready to enter and pick up our judging apron!

10.55 - Our media passes and judges apron have been picked up! Raring to go!

11.14 - Julie Duff, who normally writes on cakes, knows a thing or two about pies too! "If you look into pies back a few hundred years, pies would be stacked on top of one another with different contents - like snake and literally four and twenty blackbirds!"

11.20 - The judges briefing is well underway! We're getting ready for the pie judging to commence!

11.30 - Stephen Hallam has just welcomed Matthew to introduce the British Pie Awards and made a big announcement! The British Pie Awards 2016 will be on 9th March 2016!!!

11.35 - The Rev Kevin, whose church we are in today, has just blessed the pies with a very fitting pie prayer to thank God for the pastry beauties before us!

11.37 - The control pie is out and our Head Judge Ian Nelson is just going through his views on how the control pie should be rated - to help with consistency of judging!

11.45 - Pie judging is well underway and the church is a hive of pie activity!

12.00 - Friend of Pierate and fellow food blogger Nik Speller is judging the 'Pub Pie Class'. "We're expecting an eclectic mix of pub pies - and really they should be served with whatever the pub recommends to drink with them!"

12.12 - The hive of activity at the BPA right now is glorious to hear and see! So much pie loving going on right now!

12.20 - We just asked food critic Charles Campion why he returns to judge at the BPA year after year? "What a foolish question! What could be better than sitting in a lovely church full of delicious pork pies? It's like I've died and gone to heaven!" - We quite agree!

12.33 - Great to see Head Judge Ian Nelson mingling with the judges, offering his pie advice and pearls of wisdom!

12.39 - Nick Galer, chef and pie judge today with Pierateer Sam, calls the British Pie Awards "quintasentially British". He continues "You're in a church, sampling pies... what could be better?"

13.00 - Over an hour and a half in and they are still heating up plenty more pies!

13.15 - Rachel Linstead has judged at the British Pie Awards before. Asked why she loves coming back, she replied "It's the 5th time I've helped and I love supporting a British institution like the pie awards! It's the highlight of my year! You can see what's going on in the pie sector at the British Pie Awards and see what new flavours are coming along."

13.22 - Maureen and Janet in the fish pie class have already sampled haddock, eel and oyster pies! Just highlights the variety of pie fillings out there!

13.35 - Chef Rachel Green and team have the important job of rating the first ever 'Free From' class at the British Pie Awards.

13.45 - There are so many beef pies they are needing extra pie judges to help, once they've finished their own pie class of course!

14.00 - With things wrapping up in the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie class, we've managed to get an interview with Andy Bates, who will be hosting the awards lunch tomorrow!


14.15 - Stephen Hallam, who owns Dickinson and Morris shop "Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe" in Melton Mowbray and is heavily involved in the Awards, has given us a great interview about why pies are so great and the plans to move the BPA to March 9th (British Pie Week) next year!

14.25 - Alan Stuart, who is on the committee of the Scotch Pie Club Awards, is a class leader at the BPA. Great to have such pie expertise here!

14.35 - While some classes have started winding down now, others are still going strong!

14.45 - Just been chatting to chef Rachel Green about the new Free From class. "A bit overdue but an honour to judge the class for the first time! Some great efforts and a range of flavours, from vegetarian to meat to sweet."

15.00 - The clock strikes three and we're done at the British Pie Awards! What a great day! They're now busy setting down ready for the Awards lunch tomorrow! Can't wait to see who has won!


The winners at the British Pie Awards were announced from 2pm on Thursday 23rd April on the @BritishPies twitter feed and updated on the British Pie Awards website on Friday.

You can now read our British Pie Awards 2015 review!


If you want to find out more about the British Pie Awards 2015, check out our Countdown to the British Pie Awards article.

Did you know? This is the first year there is a 'Free From' Gluten Free Pies Class!


The Pierateers are on a mission to find the best pie they can and you can see a list of their pies rated so far in the Pierate Pie Rankings or find pies of a similar flavour on the Pies: Categorised page.

Make sure you 
and let us know your thoughts!


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