Bay's Patrick the pie king

PICTURE CLAIRE DE BARR: Patrick Lam and his prize-winning pies.

Winning New Zealand's prestigious best pie award was no pie in the sky dream for Tauranga's Patrick Lam - he has just done it again for the third time.

The baker from Bethlehem's Goldstar Patrick's Pies Bakery and Cafe won the supreme award with his creamy bacon, mushroom and cheese pie, the winner of the gourmet meat category.

It is the recipe that won him the supreme award in 2004 and in 2003 he scooped the award again with his mince and cheese pie.

"To take out this coveted award three times is quite extraordinary," chief judge Peter Grant said.

"There were completely different judges from other years and he does it again. Testimony to an outstanding baker."

Mr Lam beat entries from a record 388 bakeries to win the supreme pie contest, which he collected at the award ceremony in Auckland last night.

He also collected gold awards in the chicken and vegetable, seafood and bacon and egg pies, and was highly commended in the vegetarian section.

Mr Lam told the Bay of Plenty Times this morning he had no idea he was in the running for the supreme award.

He said he had only been told by competition officials to attend the award ceremony to collect a gold award for a pie in one of the categories.

“To be honest I was already happy just to have a gold.  I was a bit surprised that we got another supreme award.
“It was a great night.”

Mr Lam would not be baited to share the secret recipe or even a tip to what goes into baking New Zealand’s best pie.

However, he did say he had wonderful staff helping him to bake “a very nice pie” at the Bethlehem Rd bakery.

He said the same recipes for those pies stock the shelves at Rotorua’s Goldstar Bakery and Lunchbar, baked by Brett Ainsley.

Mr Lam was in hot demand this morning – making appearances on TV1 and TV3 morning programmes in quick succession.

Mr Grant said 60 per cent of the bakeries represented were run by Asian New Zealanders, and nearly 50 per cent of the awards were won by Asian bakeries.

Three other Tauranga bakers also gained awards at the Bakels Supreme Pie Awards 2009 last night.

Chhai Heng Chrin of Merivale Bakery picked up a silver award for their smoked chicken, brie with cranberry sauce pie and were highly commended for their steak and cheese pie.

Tan Kiet Trang of Cherrywood Cafe gained a highly commended for their chicken and vegetable pie and Murray Swetman of Gourmet Foods Limited on Birch Ave gained highly commended in the commercial/wholesale section. with NZPA