Once upon a time when a Kiwi vegetarian pie won Aussie Pie of the Year. You wouldn’t read about it. Unless, of course, you’re a Kiwi. Then you’d probably dine out on it.
Last year Native Affairs visited the Kiwi bakery in Melbourne that has Australians scrambling to taste their award winning pie.
Channel 7’s breakfast show ‘Sunrise’ broke the amusing news to Aussie viewers last June.
Host David Koch, shaking his head, said “For the first time the winning pastry doesn’t have any meat. It’s also vegan. And ...”
“It’s New Zealand”, said a laughing co-host Samantha Armytage.
And another Kiwi legend was born.
Doug Meijer and his team at Melbourne-based ‘Ka Pies’ created the Thai curry vegetable pie crowned Australia’s best ‘meat’ pie.
Doug says he’s at a loss how they won.
“I have no idea. We have no real business winning that competition,” he says.
“We’ve only been in business making pies for 18 months so we were competing with people who really know what they’re doing. So, I have no idea, you’ll have to ask one of the judges.”
John Humphrey, a senior judge with the Baking Association of Australia, says the Kiwi bakers were deserving winners.
“Ka Pies came up with the goods because of its uniformity. Pastry thickness on top and bottom. It was great. It was baked out properly. Had a wonderful aroma. The spices were very well balanced. That’s why they won,” he says.
Asked if he’d reveal the winning pie’s secret ingredients, Doug says “Look we got a bunch of spices here. A bit like Colonel Sanders 11 herbs and spices, I’m not going to tell you what they are. The secret ingredient is aroha.”
Since their big win, Doug and his team have been doing some pretty long hours.
“Just after we won the competition [we were] into the 33 hour day, with two 10 minute breaks. Yeah, it was pretty full on,” he says.
The Kiwi bakery's pies have been flying out its doors.
“When we first started off this was a bakery already and they were selling about 500 pies a week,” says Doug.
“We came in and we started making the Ka Pies and were up to a thousand or so in the first week. I think we did 6,000 last week. So it’s been quite a rough ride. Because we don’t know what we’re doing, we’re almost reinventing the wheel.”
Doug says they’ve been pleasantly surprised by how the Australians have taken to some Kiwi favourites.
“We’ve got the pork and watercress and the hangi pie. The Kiwi Classics. But the Aussies are actually taking more of an interest in them than the Kiwis. They love them,” he says.
It seems the Aussies are loving Ka Pies as much as they’re enjoying the good-natured banter that goes with the Kiwi bakers winning their top pie.
“Doug, were you deported from NZ for this pie? Is that the reason you’re living here?” asked Sunrise’s David Koch.
“Yeah, Australia always claims the good Kiwi here,” said a smiling Doug.
