The 2023 round of Australia’s Best Pie & Pastie Competition finished up yesterday at the Baking Industry Trade Show in Sydney. At the announcement of the results on June 1, Tony Smith (president of the Baking Association of Australia) opened by thanking all of the participants and sponsors.

“This year, 348 bakeries all across Australia entered products. The judges, over three days, went through 1,586 pieces of product. They’re record numbers yet again, when we know everyone’s time poor and they’re struggling, which we appreciate,” Tony said

“People got on planes—we had a gentleman get on a red-eye on Tuesday morning from Alice Springs, we’ve had people flying from Augusta in Western Australia to make their way here.

“We know that everyone is passionate about the industry, and we thank you so much for that.”

After running through the winners from Day 3 of the competition the winners of the two ultimate categories were announced. The title of Australia’s Best Pie was taken out by Country Cob Bakery, Melbourne, and Australia’s Best Pastie went to Samuel Gee Pies and Pastries, Southern Highlands, NSW.

“We won Australia’s best pastie again, but this time for our vegetarian sweet potato, spinach, and caramelised onion. Thought we would try something different and obviously it worked,” wrote Samuel Gee Pies and Pastries in a social media post celebrating their win.

“Congratulations to all our staff, it was a team effort.”

Country Cob Bakery also took to social media to celebrate their win.

“We finally did it,” the post reads.

“We have just won the title of the 2023 Australia’s Best Pie. After a tough three days’ competition amongst 240 other bakeries across the nation, our Fish Amok Pie took out the top gong for this year’s competition.”

Find the full list of results from the Baking Industry Trade Show here.