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Mocka Pies: Pies from the north

Mocka Pies: Pies from the north

When you turn off the sugarcane- and rainforest-lined highway into Port Douglas, the first thing you notice is a road sign, signalling your arrival at the town that harbours Mocka Pies—one of Queensland’s most famous pie shops. The legendary Mocka’s has been serving up pies in Port Douglas since 1969. We spoke to Nigel Quinn to see how this FNQ bastion of meat pies has evolved under his ownership.

“I used to eat Mocka pies as a kid,” says Nigel Quinn, the man responsible for continuing the legacy of Mocka Pies in Port Douglas.

Nigel purchased the business seven years ago when he saw the previous owners struggling.

“The original people sold and then another couple bought it and it wasn’t working out for them. I went ‘You can’t let that happen,’ so I bought it,” he explains.

Mocka Pies’ legacy began in the 50s when Belle Cheyne was working at the hotel in Port Douglas. Her son, Morris (whose nickname was Mocka), followed her to Port Douglas after his wife passed away.

“He came up here and decided to stay. He took his mum’s recipe and started Mocka Pies,” Nigel says.

Nigel still uses Belle’s recipe today for the popular Original Pie. He builds on this success with his own range, and says it’s his background as a chef that enriches his pie fillings.

Mocka Pies: Pies from the north Mocka Pies: Pies from the north

“You just have ideas of what flavours work,” he says.

“When we cook our fills, they’re not a powder curry added to a beef fill; you’re popping the mustard seeds, adding fenugreek, fresh ginger, fresh garlic, etc.”

Most people, when they think of Far North Queensland, think of crocodiles, and Nigel wanted to represent the area in his products. One of his pies is filled with crocodile meat—a meat he describes as “chickenish” in appearance and taste.

“It needs some love, flavour-wise, so that’s why I went with the laksa style for the croc pie. Because who doesn’t like ginger, coconut cream and lemongrass?” he laughs.

The crocodile meat in his pies comes from a crocodile farm near Port Douglas and the kangaroo meat is from wild-caught roos.

“When I wanted to work with kangaroo, originally we were doing a cracked pepper and red wine because, to me, kangaroo’s a lot like venison, but then we switched it across to a bush tomato and bush spices, which complement the darker meat, so now we call it a Bush Kangaroo Pie,” Nigel explains.

“We also sell a lot of seafood pies. We do our seafood with wild-caught barramundi from the region, wild-caught prawns and scallops. But you still have things like your pepper steak and your steak and mushroom, or steak, cheese and bacon—they’re the familiar ones and we do sell a lot of those.”

As the gateway to the Daintree and Great Barrier Reef, Port Douglas attracts tourists from all over the world, many who have never eaten a pie before.

“Pies aren’t familiar to them,” Nigel says.

“It’s not something you find in your everyday bakery overseas so the first thing they’ve got to understand is—what is a pie?”

Nigel says some of the adventurous tourists will go straight for a Kangaroo Pie, but often they’ll start off with an Original.

“The most common question we get is, is it real crocodile meat? If you’re jovial you’ll say, ‘Well, we tried the plastic ones but it didn’t work out.’ They never ask if it’s real chicken in the chicken pie or real meat in the meat pie—it’s only the crocodile pie,” he laughs.

“We have a full size and we have a taster. It’s a smaller croc pie, so if the customer is not as game, so to speak, they’ll just have one alongside a steak and bacon or something that’s a bit more familiar to them.”

When Nigel bought Mocka Pies seven years ago, it was purely a pie shop. Now he’s expanded the range, with great success.

Mocka Pies: Pies from the north Mocka Pies: Pies from the north

“You had meat pies and apple pies for dessert. I expanded the pie range, added eclairs, apple turnovers, carrot cake and that sort of thing. And in season we do fresh strawberry tartlets.”

Added to this is fresh bread, baked in-store daily by Nigel, a baker and a baker’s hand.

“We’re becoming known for our breads because we’ve been pushing out more sourdoughs and ciabatta. We supply a lot of cafes around town, too, so that side has grown.”

Nigel now employs around 13 staff, which is a far cry from where he started in the early days.

“Initially I’d come in in the early hours—this is before we started doing bread— and prep my fills, get my first tray in the oven and then I’d race out the front, set the cabinets and put out the tables and chairs. Then I’d race back and run the pies.”

Nigel eventually employed someone to help for a few hours from mid-morning to mid-afternoon and the staff began to build along with the success of the pies.

“My dad was my staple dishie for a while,” he recalls, “but now it’s too busy for him, so I’ve got a new dishie now.”

Nigel’s success led to the recent expansion of the shop, which now includes the adjoining premises as well. He’s looking to expand the breakfast offerings and morph the pie shop into a café.

“We want to do breakfast using our bread. We make a Danish rye, which would go with a smoked salmon or a cured salmon, a little poached egg—things like that.”

Keeping a town’s baking heart beating is hard work and, despite now having staff on-hand, Nigel is still at the bakery every day.

“I’m here every night and if I’m lucky I get away around midday. It depends on what’s happening. My partner keeps threatening to sell my boat,” he laughs.


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