Local pie wins 3-stars at Great Taste Awards 2023
Steve Manders opened his new business, The Wagtail Kitchen, in the winter of 2019.
He has beaten the challenges thrown at him throughout the Covid pandemic and creates some of the best pies you can taste!
His pièce de résistance is his Steak & Blackstick Blue Cheese Pie which has just been awarded 3-stars in the Great Taste Awards 2023.
This is no mean feat …
About Great Taste
Great Taste is the largest and most trusted food and drink accreditation scheme. It supports and promotes food and drink producers, large and small, giving buyers and food lovers in the UK and overseas reliable recommendations for great tasting food.
Since 1994, more than 150,000 products have been put through this robust judging process. Each one is fastidiously blind-tasted by selected chefs, cooks, buyers, retailers, restaurateurs, food critics and writers.
The judges look for truly great taste, regardless of branding or packaging. They take into account texture, appearance and of course the quality of the ingredients; they will note a good aroma, a decent bite, or a particularly smooth or crunchy texture. But above all else the question remains – does the product taste truly great?
What do 3 stars mean?
Extraordinarily tasty food and drink – around 2% of products are awarded 3-stars each year. Don’t leave the shop without buying it!
Only 2% of products tried will win this category each year; in fact only two pies were awarded 3-stars this year and only four products in Cumbria won.
Steve says: “I couldn’t believe the news when the phone call came! I’m so proud of all my products, but I didn’t expect to win 3-stars, in fact, I might never win one ever again!”
The Wagtail Kitchen
After a varied career, including a spell as working as a psychiatric nurse and then running a hog roast business, Steve Manders looked for a change in direction.
In November 2019, he found premises in Kendal and started making pies. He’s always used Pioneer Foodservice as his supplier of meat.
As Steve says:
“I buy all my meat for my pies from Pioneer Foodservice and the quality is always top-notch! I make over 1,000 pies a week; I know I don’t need to change my recipes as the meat is always consistently excellent. My Steak and Blackstick Blue Cheese Pie has just won 3 stars in the Great Taste Awards 2023 so I know the meat is the best!”
Steve is a keen advocate of local produce and his pies are made using Butlers Farmhouse Cheese Blacksticks Blue, which is also a Great Taste Awards winner, based in Inglewhite, near Preston. They also use use Gan Yam Brew Co.’s amazing ‘Tar’ ale, a rich and dark porter which perfectly complements the creaminess of the blue cheese.
Not only did he gain 3-stars for his steak pie, but his Chicken & Chorizo Pie won 2-stars and the Wagtail Festive Savoury Pie won 1-star.
Steve supplies a local leisure group with between 600 to 700 pies a week and he likes to keep an eye on Trip Advisor reviews. Thankfully, he says, there have been no bad reviews of his pies to date!
Steve says:
“I buy over a 100 kilos of beef a week from Pioneer and I’m hoping in the near future to increase production to 120,000 a year. I know I’ll continue to use Pioneer as my supplier as their service is second-to-none
“I’ve known John Cowen a long time and I know he’s always there to help me out – he gives me great advice if I’m looking for new products and the sales support team are always helpful too.
“I order everything online, in fact, I use the system daily as it’s so easy to use and navigate around. If I do something wrong when I’m in a rush, Pioneer’s sales support team will ring me up and give really helpful advice and support.”
The proof is in the eating!
When we visited Steve in Kendal he kindly gave us samples of his award-winning Steak & Blackstick Blue Cheese Pie.
The didn’t hang around for long and we can now verify that the pie is amazing!