Melton Mowbray: Battle starts for bakers to be crowned UK pie champion

Royal chef Mark Flanagan was among the judges sampling 900 pies in Melton Mowbray on Wednesday

Hundreds of bakers will put their skills to the test hoping to be crowned the supreme champion at the 16th British Pie Awards.

Vegan, dessert and the traditional pork pies were sampled on Wednesday in the Leicestershire town synonymous with the savoury favourite, Melton Mowbray.

The pies in this year's competition will be judged by 160 professionals and food amateurs, including Royal chef Mark Flanagan, at St Mary's Church.

The winner will be announced on Friday.

The first prize will be awarded from 24 different categories, including a new fusion pie class.

One winner from 24 different categories will be announced.

Herlinda Heras, from San Francisco, said it was her 10th year judging at the national competition

The judges came from around the world, including TV chef Herlinda Heras, who had flown from San Francisco in the US specifically for the event.

"I've come all the way to this beautiful little town of Melton Mowbray in this 800-year-old church, which is four times older than my country, and we're judging pies," she said.

"It's so cool. I love the tradition.

"It's a big honour to judge the pork pie class in Melton Mowbray - the home of pork pies and Stilton. This is actually a tough category because there are so many entries and there are a lot of really great ones."

'Really odd pieces'

The chef, who has returned to judge for the 10th time, says she appreciates the traditional handmade pork pie.

"The old pork pie shop in Melton Mowbray was my first introduction to the cold pork pie," she said.

"The master Stephen Hallam taught me how to make these pies, so I appreciate the handmade aspect of it."

She said there were not many savoury pies in the US, but the chicken pot pie and shepherd's pie were popular.

"Mostly we do dessert pies," she said. "We're starting to see more as people are kind of catching on to it, but otherwise we don't really see this."

Judge Yumiko Tivers, from Japan, said the vegan pies were "top class"

The category with the most entries this year was in the beef and alcohol class with 91 participants. The vegan class had 43 entries, followed by the new fusion pie class at 26.

Yumiko Tivers, who is a Japanese travel guide and associated with the British Fair in Japan, said she loved being a judge in the annual pie awards for the first time in the vegan category.

"Everybody thinks pies are pies, but they're so different," she said.

"There are some really odd pieces and I couldn't understand why they put in that ingredient, but I'm enjoying it.

"To me, of course the filling is really important, but I love the crust. I'm looking for really crumbly crust."

Ms Tivers said there were "several really good" vegan pies, adding: "We would love to give them gold, but you have to choose one.

"Because I'm vegan, I've tried so many vegan pies but these are top class."

She added she hoped to dedicate one of her online programmes to British pies to teach Japanese people "what British pies are really like".