Thanks to the terrace chant of ‘Who ate all the pies?’ the humble pie has not had the best press over the last few years. Unfairly, in some quarters, the pie has become a symbol of gluttony. Describe someone as having their ‘face in a pie’ and the implication is that they are much more greedy than, say, someone who has their face in a salad.
Fortunately, British Pie Week is fighting back against these slurs and trying to promote the pie to its rightful place at the heart of British cooking. As well as telling the story of pie (apparently they started off in Egypt), the organisation’s website has a number of intriguing pie recipes as well as this year’s winning pie formula from Ashley Robins, chef at The Keystone in Guildford. Congratulations to Mr Robins whose Legendary Game Pie has seen him named as the Face of British Pie Week 2009.
Some of 5pm’s members are doing their bit for the reputation of the pie. At The Bank on Glasgow’s Southside, apple pie is one of the options on their £6.50 two course credit crunch lunch offer. Staying in Glasgow, both Capitol and Guy’s fly the flag for steak pies. In Edinburgh, Whigham’s lays on a steak and ale pie while The Granary has really seized the bull by the horns and rolls out a pie of the day.