Five Minutes With Mick Di Salvatore, The Piefather

With Kylie Triggell
Images By Supplied
22 November 2025
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Mick Di Salvatore

From starting his apprenticeship as a teenager to becoming a highly decorated baker, Mick Di Salvatore is a force to be reckoned with in the Australian baking industry. Baking Business caught up with Mick to hear his story.

Where did your career start?

I started baking at age 14 in a local bakery attached to my parents’ supermarket. I then left school at 16 to start an apprenticeship, but actually opened my first shop at age 18 with the help from my parents

Why did you decide to become a baker?

I wanted to be a chef originally, but the opportunity came up to start baking. I got hooked and seemed to have a natural talent for it.

What notable milestones have there been in your career?

I have a few that stand out, I guess. There’s my first Official Great Aussie Pie competition win in 1999, and in 1998 we won the Sydney Royal Champion Pie. I was the inaugural winner of the Great Aussie Pastie competition. We went on to win over 25 champion shields at the Sydney Royal Show over the years, and I think around 30 or so category wins at the Great Aussie pie competition along with seven national titles and two runner-ups in a 9/10 year window before stopping – or I guess retiring somewhat.

I’ve lost count how many gold medals we’ve won. I have also been fortunate to have some good staff around me who are just as responsible for the success as me.

Mick took his pies onto the Today Show

Can you tell us about The PieFather?

Over the last several years we have really focused on wholesale and, of course, the Easter Show. We did do a couple of Ekkas pre-covid. I guess it’s been frustrating with the quality of product we have and the range, especially the “mick” range, when we do the show but it is very hard to get into that market space wholesale due to costs etc. I know consumers want it but often you are dealing with politics or price – or both – so it’s been on the backburner for a year or two.

The opportunity and timing just didn’t come up until early last year. I wanted to create a unique and genuine gourmet pie shop in Sydney for 12 months of the year, not just two weeks each year at the Easter Show. Personally, I probably needed a challenge both professionally and personally with regards to product.

What’s your development process like when it comes to your pies?

I get asked this question a lot! I just an idea and it goes from there. I literally can be driving to work and something will just pop into my head. The scary thing is I have a black book with about another 50 ideas in it that I haven’t had time to try yet. I have probably made over 250 varieties at one point of another. It’s the one thing I enjoy and probably one of the reasons The Piefather was created – I don’t think I will ever get to the end of the road where I say I can’t think of something as, the second I do another four or five ideas emerge. It’s like the Mick’s Range – it virtually evolved on its own and had been driven by consumers. Literally, if I don’t have two or three new flavours at the Easter Show I get asked questions and often we have to bring flavours back due to requests

You were also inducted into the Official Great Aussie Pie Competition Hall of Fame in 2019, and have been a senior pie judge for the competition. Can you tell us about this?

In 2011, when I last entered the Official Great Aussie Pie Competition I made a promise to my main baker at the time that if we won again we would retire, as we were going for three straight titles. We entered a fair bit of product that year and won something like 39 gold medals from 40 entries – not happy about the silver! – in any case we won Best Gourmet Pie, so I honored my promise to him and announced we wouldn’t be competing anymore.

A few weeks later I was approached by the competition organisers and asked if I’d like to judge the following year. Of course I said yes. I was honoured to do so, especially as I was given a Senior Judge’s role. I guess this was because of my history. I have to say I was – and still am – extremely honoured to have been in that position for 11 years as a Senior Judge, and for a few of those years took on dual roles.

The Hall of Fame induction came as a complete surprise, to be honest. I was certainly honored to be inducted and more so because I was one of the first two inductees. It’s something that I will definitely always cherish. The reality is I’d still love to be judging. If you asked me a few years ago if I’d ever compete again I’d have said [the chances are] it’s a millon to 1, but I guess things happen and here we are.

Mick was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019

What advice would you give to others aspiring to follow your footsteps?

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Our industry is tough and you often hard work for very little reward. If you want success you have to work hard and challenge yourself and be able to critique your own product. Gold medals, for arguments sake, are not given – they are earnt.