Flavoursome pies satisfy visitors to Melton's PieFest

Dickinson and Morris' Stephen Hallam oversees the pie making activities in the theatre PHOTO: Tim Williams

Visitors who attended were able to try, and buy, sweet and savoury pies, hot and cold pies, the traditional Melton Mowbray pork pie and other outlandish flavoured pies.

Matthew O’Callaghan from the Melton Mowbray Food Partnership, organiser of PieFest 2018 said: “All our pie makers, about 20 or so, sold very well.

“We catered for people with a range of food palettes including gluten free and vegetarian vegan, and it was great to see so many youngsters stuffing their faces with pies.

Dunkleys chefs Ethan Barrett and Chet Willcock serving up hot pies PHOTO: Tim Williams

“PieFest is only in its third year and is already bigger than the cheese fair was, which is remarkable considering its still growing.”

On sale as well as pies were sausage rolls, pork scratchings, beer and cider, ice cream, cheese, cakes, wine and chutneys.

Visitors weren’t just restricted to tasting and purchasing pies, they were also able to enjoy demonstrations and workshops on how to make the perfect pie.

A Pie Theatre programme included talks on A History of Pies, Raising a Melton Mowbray Pork Pie and a ‘Pie Panel’ where visitors could put their pie and pastry queries to an expert panel of cooks and pie makers.

Passing the afternoon relaxing and eating pies PHOTO: Tim Williams

“Marcus Bean, the BBC’s Good Food Show presenter, went down extremely well with everyone and the audience really did like him,” said Matthew.

“Another highlight was Brockleby’s who did apple pie making workshops for kids.

“It was also great to give small companies just starting out, like Melton Charcuterie, a boost in profile and platform to sell their products.

“There was an unprecedented level of enquiries from traders wanting to have stands.”

Pie and mash from Steve Harris and Alex Joll of Eat Square PHOTO: Tim Williams

Coaches came from as far afield as Manchester to this year’s PieFest and a good number of advanced ticket sales helped boost the attendance figure, however, like many events at the weekend, the weather did play a part in trying to disrupt preparations.

Matthew added: “The wind unfortunately was nuisance this year and on Saturday morning, fortunately before the public arrived one of our gazebos snapped in two, so we had to take all our marquees down.

“Not only am I eagerly hoping for better weather next year, I want PieFest to turn into a celebratory festival across the town where restaurants, shops, cafes and hotels get involved.”