Expat couple's pies hit high spots

Y LEIGHTON KEITH leighton.keith@tnl.co.nz - Taranaki Daily News | Thursday, 27 March 2008

A former Taranaki couple making "Kiwi-style" pies are cleaning up the Aussie competition.


For three years Tom and Anne Butler have owned the Beechwood Bakehouse in Maleny, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

The couple, who previously owned Butlers Reception Lounge in New Plymouth, recently won a gold certificate for their cream silverside pie and a silver in the chunky meat pie category at the Fine Food fair Show in Brisbane.

It is not their first success - they took home the bronze medal for their chunky steak pie in last year's Great Australian Pie Competition in Sydney.

The idea for the silverside pie came to them while having dinner one night.

Mrs Butler said they had not expected success in their first foray into pie-making competitions.

"We were pretty lucky to be up there, because a lot of them are big pie manufactures and we are only small-fry," she said.

The recipe for success was simple. "Good Kiwi ingenuity. We are making Kiwi-style pies."

They sell 22 different varieties of pie at the bakery, including minted lamb pies, which were sold as the Kiwi pie because of the ribbing Australians gave New Zealanders about sheep.

Their pies had met with the judges' approval - but what does the Ocker on the street think?

"They think that they are wonderful too, pies are the biggest seller in our bakery," Mrs Butler said.

The wide selection of pies has also impressed the locals.

"They are like kids in a lolly shop, they don't know what to pick."

The couple, who left New Zealand in June 1991, still have family in the region, including Tom's parents, Ken and Shirley Butler in Stratford, and son Matthew and his wife Anna in Hawera.