Who doesn’t love a pie and mash dinner every now and again? (Picture: Piecaramba/Getty)
Much like the full English breakfast, Sunday roast and fish and chips, the humble pie is about as British as you can get.
These pastry-wrapped delights are as popular as they’ve ever been – and why wouldn’t they be, for what beats a nostalgia-laden plate full of pie, mash and liquor or a delicious pork pie on a summer picnic in the park?
But the Great British pie industry is also facing a reckoning, where tradition and classic flavours butt heads with innovation and new ideas.
Research from The Grocer in 2023 found that exotic pies with flavours influenced by global cuisine are now more popular than ever before, as the preference for traditional flavours like beef and onion and steak and kidney wanes.
Sales of pies and savoury pastries were up by nearly 10% to £1.8 billion – but that’s down to higher prices, as the actual volume of products sold dropped by 4.6% in the same period.
So what are pie shops doing to keep customers walking through the door? This British Pie Week, Metro.co.uk spoke with pie-makers old and new to find out.
The business has operated from the same shop since the 1850s (Picture: Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe)
‘A lot of people still love tradition’
Richard Griffiths runs Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe, a baker’s pie shop in Melton Mowbray which was founded in 1851.
It was Mary Dickinson, grandmother of the bakery founder John Dickinson, who is credited with creating the first ever Melton Mowbray pork pie, using a wooden dolly to hand-raise the pastry around it.
More than 170 years on, the business still operates from the same Grade II-listed shop, and they still use the same recipe – a recipe so special, it was given Protected Geographical Indication in 2008, joining the esteemed ranks alongside Welsh Leeks and Jersey Royal potatoes.
And while the business itself has evolved over the years, opening an online store and expanding to sell foods from other local suppliers, manager Richard insists there is still a lot of love out there for the traditional classic.
‘Pies are still as popular as ever. We get new generations coming through the shop and we’re selling online now as much as ever,’ he says.
‘The pork pie is our bestseller. Modern tastes mean people want different things, but we can still use the same amazing ingredients to make other dishes.
‘We understand tastes change and people want to try other things, so we created our Stilton-topped pork pie, and make chocolate-covered pork pies for the local chocolate festival. We like to try different things.’
A shop running as long as Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe is bound to have had a few famous visitors.
A pork pie is never out of place during a picnic (Picture: Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe/John Carey)
King Charles came to visit when he was still the Duke of Edinburgh to have a go at raising a pie, and plenty of other royals, politicians and high-profile chefs have also come through the doors.
The shop is currently undergoing a major refit to future-proof it for the next generation, and Richard says the business is well aware of their responsibility to preserve the past, both through their traditional recipes and by looking after the building.
He explains: ‘The ingredients that go into it and the skill of the bakers who make it every day is what makes our pies so good. Our head pie maker has been making pies for over 30 years, and he’s passing that on to our other bakers.
‘We get thousands of visitors each year, some local and some travel from all over the world to see the famous product and shop. It’s really important to Melton Mowbray as a town.’
But are we coming to the end of the pie’s golden era? Richard’s answer is a resounding no.
‘The pork pie is definitely here to stay, its popularity is on the rise and with the online shopping becoming more prevalent we’re serving customers from further afield than ever before,’ he says.
‘We can’t just rely on people to come through the door’
Piecaramba now make all of their pies in house (Picture: Piecaramba)
Phil Linssen owns Piecaramba, a pie and mash shop with branches in Winchester and Southampton that put a modern spin on the tradition.
Comic strips line the walls, the shop has Star Wars-themed toilets, and there are even gaming consoles on some of the tables.
During Covid lockdown the shop opened with just one outside table big enough for two – that was all the space they had.
And while they didn’t make much money, Phil says it was essential to ‘keep the brand alive during a difficult time’.
While Phil agrees that the traditional pie isn’t going to disappear off our plates any time soon, he believes bakers must widen their appeal to attract a new generation of pie and mash lovers through the doors.
‘We’re trying to bring it more into the present day. We’ve always said we want to take what’s a very traditional British meal and bring it into the 21st century,’ he says.
‘We do that by using different flavours. Of course we have the traditional steak and ale, chicken ham and leek, minced beef and onion, but we also do flavours like hunter’s chicken, chip shop chicken curry, pulled pork and Moroccan tagine.
They make sure they have fun and come up with fun new fillings alongside the traditional flavours (Picture: Piecaramba)
‘Traditional pie and mash served in green tiled shop fronts offering three flavours with liquor will always stand the test of time, but nowadays people want that variety.’
Phil describes hospitality as a ‘very difficult game’ at the moment, with businesses being hit from two fronts.
Not only are business costs going up as the cost of living hits food and energy prices, customers are also being hit with the same rises, meaning they have less disposable income and are less likely to eat out.
Since Piecaramba’s doors first opened in 2016 the business has expanded to cater for weddings and corporate events, providing pies for around 25 weddings every year.
They’ve also brought all of the baking in-house, rather than buying in flavours, and have more recently moved into wholesale so their pies can be sold in pubs and restaurants.
Sometimes you can’t beat a classic pie with mash and gravy (Picture: Piecaramba)
Asked why he thinks pie and mash is so popular, Phil says: ‘It’s a real comfort food, it fills you up and the pie is a vehicle so you can have lots of different fillings inside, it’s a mystery, and they taste really good if you get the pastry right.
‘I think it’s something you can sit down and everyone can enjoy it. It’s hearty, comforting food which will always be around because of its versatility.
‘I think it will always have a place within British food, like the Sunday roast, and it’s an affordable option.
‘As long as it keeps adapting I think it will be ever evolving. I can’t see it going anywhere any time soon.’
And what does Phil hope for the future of British pies?
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‘I would like to see more innovation, I’d love to see more pie makers come to the forefront, and younger people too,’ he says.
‘It’s a generational thing so we would love to see more younger people coming in.
‘We’ve got to make the industry more accessible – food doesn’t need to be poncey, it can be fun.’
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