Matt Preston names Australia's best (and worst) pies

It’s one of Australia’s most hotly contested accolades - and Matt Preston is only too happy to travel the country in search of the nation’s best meat pie.

Some travel for a view or a sporting event or a big-name show. I fear I mark myself down as a man who will travel for pie.

I’m surely not alone. Australians are believed to eat more pies than any other country in the world – on average 12 a person per year. That’s around 270 million hot, hand-held slabs of heaven annually.

This perhaps explains why I pulled over at the Patties pie factory in the Victorian town of Bairnsdale to get a picture in of its mural. It’s the best passionate pie people can do until a statue is erected in Bendigo of Aussie pie legend Les McClure, who invented the Four’n Twenty pie at his Dad & Dave café in the city, and went on to build the then-biggest pie factory in the world in the Melbourne suburb of Ascot Vale.

There are other destinations for a pie pilgrimage and here are some of my favourites.

Matt Preston says there's no better place to enjoy a meat pie than at the MCG.

The MCG

There’s no better taste than a pie at three-quarter time at the MCG when your team is six goals up – okay, maybe seven goals if you’re a Carlton, Brisbane or Freo fan. And this is doubly so when it comes to the imminent Grand Final.

So, if you’re travelling to the game, forget packing a Thermos of soup or some sangers and instead savour a classic meat pie while watching your team. Might I suggest it really doesn’t matter – apart from for the purists – whether it’s a Patties pie, a Four’n Twenty or a fancy pie from the MCG Pie Shop Cart. They all have the same dream combination of slightly doughy, gravy-soaked pastry, rich filling (that immediately blisters the roof of the mouth – the onset of instant bubble-wrap). The cooling smear of tart tomato sauce on top makes the experience. Especially when seasoned with the smell of the sacred turf and the despair of opposition fans.

Just two words of advice: buy near the end of a quarter to minimise the wait and maximise heating time. The MCG sells about 17,000 pies on Grand Final day so queues can be savage. Oh, and always explore the internal temperature before plunging in, no matter if you’re distracted by that lead starting to leak away.

In June, the Rolling Pin Bakery's laksa pie was named Australia's No.1.

Top pies tasted

I’ve been known to delay my plans for a good pie. When it was announced in June that the Rolling Pin Bakery on the Bellarine Peninsula had won Australia’s Best Pie I was there as they unbolted the door the next day. The target was the laksa pie that had beaten out 2000 pies from 367 bakeries across the country for the trophy.

It was the Rolling Pin Bakery’s third win in four years at these awards organised by the Baking Association of Australia. Yes, obviously I also had to reacquaint myself with the 2021 winner, a surf and turf pie, and 2022’s victor – and my favourite – the mushroom and truffle pie. Some might call it greed. I just mark it down as professionalism. Rolling Pin has a rep for innovative pies, but I still reckon the plain beef pie, loaded with the sort of rich filling that comes from cooking the meat for a couple of hours, is my go-to here. These are great for fuelling up after a surf on Ocean Grove’s stunning beach or after little antiquing in quaint Queenscliff; the bakery has branches in both holiday towns.

Street cafe Harry's Cafe de Wheels is a Sydney institution.

Pie floaters

If you went to Adelaide in the 1870s with only a little “tin” (or, to be more historically accurate, a couple of “zacks”) in your pocket you would probably have eaten from one of the city’s pie carts. By the 1890s they had come up with the pie floater, Adelaide’s signature dish. The combo of a thick pea soup in which paddles the pie topped with a whorl of brilliant carmine tomato sauce has been declared a South Australian heritage icon but, sadly, the pie carts are long gone. I had one back in the day – it was good. In fact, rather better and more wholesome than the club we’d been to. Today you’ll need to seek out a local bakery to try this dish that’s as Adelaide as FruChocs.

Ironically, the closest thing to the old pie cart experience is to head to Sydney and the original Harry’s Cafe de Wheels next to the naval docks in Woolloomooloo. You’ll be in good company – the likes of Frank Sinatra and Elton John have enjoyed a late-night pie here since it opened in 1936. I hope they plumped for founder and former boxer Tiger Edwards’ famous Tiger pie, a pie of your choice topped with mash, mushy peas and gravy. A classic.

NB: Don’t be snooty. You’ll feel at home here in work boots or a shimmering gown after a swank do. But The Bachelor contestant Laurina Fleure was unimpressed the bach-who-shall-not-be-named took her here for a “dirty street pie”.

King Island Bakehouse's crayfish pie tops Matt's list when it comes to seafood pies.

Seafood pies

Seafood pies are more divisive. My adventures with these have usually been less satisfactory than vego or meat options. Worst was a famous curried scallop pie I had in Tasmania. The shellfish were as tough and bullety as rubber door stops – this seemed even more of a crime on an island famed for its seafood.

Then recently I found the exception on an island marooned in the Bass Strait. King Island Bakehouse’s cray pie is a generous combo of local cray – brought in by the fishers to the Currie jetty less than 700m away – and a little shark packed into a good shortcrust. A cute little pastry cray tops it off.

Originally published as Matt Preston names Australia's best (and worst) pies