Inverness piemaker among the upper crust at British Pie Awards
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An Inverness piemaker has picked up three awards in a national competition.
Angela Clark, who works at Café V8 in the Longman Industrial Estate, is relishing the haul, which includes one silver in the sports pie category plus a trio of bronze awards.
The sports pies are supplied to Caley Thistle and Clachnacuddin football clubs for their home matches.
Mrs Clark (56) only began making pies when she started working at the café just over six years ago.
“I must being doing something right,” she said.
She was originally taught how to make pies by café manager David MacDougall and just carried on from there.
“I think it won silver because the meat is nice and lean – there is no fat or gristle,” she said.
“Everybody loves the gravy. The gravy makes it.”
This year’s British Pie Awards, which took place in Melton Mowbray, saw a whopping 848 pies entered from 160 professional pie bakers, butchers and chefs from around the UK.
After an extensive judging process on each pie’s appearance and taste by 140 experts, the pies received their awards.
Mr MacDougall said the awards were the biggest competition for pies and they entered every year.
He said: “It is the quality which helps our pies stand out – each steak pie is handmade, there are no machines.
“All the meat is cooked on the premises and we also sell them in the café.”
They can usually supply around 100 pies for a home match but when the sides are hosting a relatively big team, which is likely to attract more fans, they make a lot more.
Mr MacDougall said: “If it’s a big team, as in terms of Dundee United, Angela can be making between 300 and 400 pies.
“She’s had numerous awards over the six years we’ve been here.”
Awards organiser Dr Matthew O’Callaghan said: “For the past 12 years, we’ve judged well over 9000 pies.
“During that time the quality, and also the range, of pies that have been submitted have increased significantly – a tribute to the craft and skills of the British piemaker.”
