Image Credit: Goolwa Bakery est 1914
South Australia has once again proven it punches well above its weight when it comes to pies, pasties and sausage rolls, with some of the state’s most beloved bakeries returning from the Australian Baking Association Awards in Queensland with a suitcase full of medals.
Among the biggest winners were long-time crowd favourites Orange Spot Bakery and Banana Boogie Bakery, both names that have become synonymous with award-winning baked goods.
Orange Spot continued its remarkable run in the pastie categories, cementing its status as one of Australia’s most consistently successful bakeries, particularly impressing judges in the pastie category, taking out Australia’s Best Traditional Pastie, Best Gourmet Pastie, Best Vegetarian Pastie, and Best Apprentice Traditional Pastie. When asked what the secret to their continuous success is, owner Marc shared that it comes down to an eye for detail and quality ingredients.
“It’s mainly having the best ingredients. We basically start everything from scratch – so we cut our own veg, we pick the best possible ingredients… we don’t want to save a bit of money here and there for the sake of quality.”
“Everything we make comes from Australian ingredients. That’s probably our proudest thing, because they are the best in the world. Australia’s food is the best in the world. No doubt about it.”
Banana Boogie, meanwhile, added yet another national title to its growing list of achievements, taking out Australia’s Best Mushroom Pie, alongside ‘gold medal’ achievements for its Pulled Pork Pie, Seafood Paella Pie, Beef, Mac & Cheese & Sriracha Pie, and Mitch’s Traditional Pastie.
For Banana Boogie owner and baker Jason, winning Australia’s Best Mushroom Pie was particularly satisfying.
“We haven’t been able to win any categories for pies for a while, so to finally get one was really good,” he said.
The winning pie was no ordinary mushroom pie. Developed with the help of chef Brie, the recipe combines three different mushroom varieties to create a rich, layered flavour. Jason told us that one of the judges even described it as “probably the best pie I’ve ever had in my life”.
But the bakery’s excellent reputation now extends even beyond Australia. After having the best sausage roll for four years in a row, Banana Boogie was selected to take part in the Trans-Tasman sausage roll competition, going head-to-head with a baker from New Zealand’s South Island and coming away with the win.
“It’s not just best sausage roll in Australia anymore,” he joked.
While some bakeries guard their recipes closely, Jason says Banana Boogie‘s success comes down to carefully studying the judges’ feedback sheets, analysing everything from pastry thickness to filling consistency and flavour balance.
“When we don’t do well, we ask for the feedback,” he explained.
“We look at it, work out what we need to improve and then try to turn that around the following year”.
But beyond the familiar names and established champions, this year’s results also highlighted a rising contender from the Fleurieu.
The historic Goolwa Bakery est 1914, operating from a site that has been serving locals and visitors since 1914, has emerged as one of South Australia’s fastest-growing success stories, collecting a string of recent state and national accolades and walking away with ‘gold medal’ achievements for their Chicken, Truffle and Tarragon pie, as well as silver awards for their Short Rib and Smoked Celeriac pie and their Chunky Beef pie.
Located in one of the state’s most popular holiday destinations, Goolwa Bakery est 1914 has spent the past three years reinventing itself under owner Chris Taylor, a chef by trade, who has worked at iconic restaurants including Bondi Icebergs, the Royal Randwick Racecourse, the Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide Casino and the Adelaide Club. He aims to bring a restaurant-quality approach to his bakery, ensuring he’s serving up some of the tastiest and flakiest pies and pasties that South Aussies can get their hands on.
“It was always an iconic heritage bakery,” Chris said.
“Everyone knew it, but it had lost a bit of its appeal. We wanted to bring it back.”
Earlier this year, Goolwa Bakery est 1914 dominated the South Australian Baking Show, winning Best Chunky Beef Pie, Best Gourmet Pie, Best Poultry Pie, as well as bronze in the latter two categories.
The team then took its champion products to the national competition in Queensland, where more than 2,300 pies from 370 bakeries across Australia were judged.
Chris believes the bakery’s success stems from combining high-level restaurant cooking with expert baking.
“Bakers aren’t always great cooks and chefs aren’t always great bakers,” he said.
“But when you get a good chef and a good baker together, you get a synergy.”
“I’m using French cooking techniques… I’m making the ragus for the pie fillings, and then my main baker, Josh McInerney, he’s doing outstanding pastry work.”
“When they judge a pie, there’s probably maybe 20 or even 30 criteria, and they’re looking at everything from symmetry to the lift, to the taste of the pastry, the texture of the pastry… the filling, the originality of the filling, the complexity, the flavour, depth, the consistency of the meat ratio, the filling ratio. And then it’s all of those criteria that they use to come out with what’s the best.”
“We’re treating the filling like a proper restaurant dish,” he said.
The bakery has been a fixture of the town for more than 110 years and occupies a special place in the memories of generations of South Australians who have holidayed along the Fleurieu Peninsula.
“People come in and tell us they used to visit when they were kids, now they’re bringing their own families.”
Safe to say, Goolwa Bakery est 1914 is on a roll, and potentially on a stride to soon make its way up against established heavyweights.
For pie lovers, that’s very good news. Our baking scene is thriving – continuously upping the ante and making pies, pasties and other baked goods that just keep getting better. But is there a bit of cutthroat competition, or just some friendly rivalry?
As Marc of Orange Spot says, definitely the latter.
“It’s about lifting each other up… we all benefit, we never snipe at each other… there’s no point, because there’s enough for everyone.”
Baking Association of Australia Best Pie and Best Pastie Awards
To see the full list of winners, click here.
