Scotch Pie Awards boasts international entry

Kevin Haggard, owner of Sunblest Foods in Santa Maria, California will put his pies up against the best Scotland has to offer.

And it will be up to head judge Ian Nelson and his team of bakery experts, along with a few well known faces, to put the pies through their paces alongside some 500 other baked beauties to select the best Scotch Pie, Football Pie, Macaroni Pie, Steak Pie, Sausage Roll, Cold Savoury, Hot Savoury, Vegetarian Savoury, Haggis Savoury, Bridie and Apple Pie in the land.

Kevin said: “It’s really great to here and I am so pleased that I have the opportunity to see how my Scotch Pies and Football Pies measure up against the world’s best, this is a dream come true for me. I opened up my bakery Seattle in 1988 when I was 28 years old so it’s still a young business! Sunblest is a bakery that makes a line of traditional meat pies and I’m only one of a few bakers in the US that makes a Scottish meat Pie.

“I saw an opportunity some years ago now to develop the market for superior meat pies and so I contacted the Pacific Northwest Scottish Society, and I provided pies for a Burns night dinner. This is how I was introduced to the Scottish community in Seattle and this allowed me to begin selling pies at the Highland Games. I now sell pies at the highland games in Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Denver, Salt Lake City, Detroit, Tulsa, Dallas and many smaller cities you probably wouldn’t know the names of.

“But to be here, in Scotland, meeting generations’ old bakery businesses, I just hope my pies make the grade!”

The Sunblest Pies will join this years’ bumper crop of entries which includes a wide range of ‘products at their peak’ with accolades on offer for the best:

Scotch Pie

Football Pies & Savouries

Macaroni Pie

Steak Pie

Sausage Roll

Cold Savoury

Hot Savoury

Vegetarian Savoury

Haggis Savoury

Bridie

Apple Pie

This year also sees the introduction of celebrity judges: The Rt. Hon. Donald Wilson, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh will join former Celtic player Simon Donnelly and Partick Thistle manager and SPFL Board Member Ian Maxwell alongside the professional judges to pick the best pies & savouries sold at a football match in Scotland. David Beattie chairman of Patrick Thistle was excited about this and said: “It’s important to remember that managers and players are customers too and this gives us the opportunity to celebrate the great pies that are served every week in grounds all across Scotland.”

And The World Championship Scotch Pie Awards is also delighted to announce the introduction of a new category for Macaroni Pies. Ian Nelson, head judge said: “The macaroni pie is a unique Scottish product and we want to recognise this and have created a category all of its own. This means that butchers and bakers now have more chances to win in our vegetarian savoury products category.”

Judging for the competition will take place on Wednesday, November 9, at Carnegie Conference Centre, Halbeath Road, Dunfermline, KY11 8DY.

The winner will be announced at a prestigious luncheon on January 11, 2017, at the Westerwood Hotel, Cumbernauld.