Paradise Bakehouse awarded best plain meat pie in Australia

Bundaberg’s best kept secret has beaten out hundreds of entries to be awarded Australia’s best plain meat pie in the nation’s biggest and longest running pie competition. Find out the secret to their amazing success:

Bundaberg's Paradise Bakehouse, owned by Huyen Nguyen (left) and Lam Khong (right), won the prize for best plain meat pie at the prestigious Official Great Aussie Pie Competition.

When Bundaberg’s Huyen Nguyen and Lam Khong learnt they had taken out the prize for best plain meat pie at Australia’s most prestigious pie competition, they were 1200km away.

Having only opened their Paradise Bakehouse in Moore Park in 2021, the couple didn’t think they were a chance of winning any prizes in the Official Great Aussie Pie Competition being held at the Sydney International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Watching the announcement from home on Thursday afternoon via Facebook Live, Huyen and Lam cried tears of joy when they heard their chunky beef pie announced as Australia’s best in the country’s longest running pie competition, now in its 34th year.

“We were happy, so happy,” Huyen said.

“We were crying and grateful … we did it! My husband was crying a lot, and yelling … so now he has lost his voice!”

Thinking they were not a chance of winning, Huyen and Lam did not attend the winners' announcement and asked their friends Trung Tran, Hieu Le & Tien Nguyen to collect the trophy on their behalf.

While they only recently opened their own bakery, the prize is a culmination and reward for a labour of love pursued for the past nine years since Lam arrived in Perth from Vietnam and started learning his trade from more experienced bakers.

In no doubt that the quality of ingredients and attention to detail were instrumental to their great victory, Huyen said it was the passion and dedication with which Lam goes about his work that was the real secret to their success.

“He really loves cooking, it’s his passion – whenever he cooks, you can tell he’s really happy” she said.

“He makes the pie with love; I think that’s the most important key that we got (the prize).

“Of course you need good pastry, good filling, the colour needs to be perfect.

“But everything needs to be made with love, that’s what we found.”

Competition organiser and national manager of the Australian Pie Council, Dani Lindsay, said more than 1500 entries were received from around Australia in 2023, more than any other pie competition, with Paradise Bakehouse topping a field of 326 entries in the plain meat pie category.

More than 1500 entries were received from around Australia in the 2023 competition, with a team of 14 judges awarding Paradise Bakehouse the top prize from a field of 326 entries in the plain meat pie category.

With the competition’s 14 judges all industry professionals, including ex-bakers and TAFE instructors, Ms Lindsay said the chances of the average punter living the dream and becoming a pie competition judge were slim at best.

“We get requests every year and lots of comments on our socials asking ‘how do I become a judge?’,” Ms Lindsay said.

“There’s no chance of that happening.”

Dean Musgrave is one of the lucky few, being a senior judge at the Official Great Aussie Pie Competition, and a baker with 45 years’ experience.

Mr Musgrave said the Paradise Bakehouse entry ticked all the boxes judges look for, including crust colour, the thickness and sheen of the pastry and the colour and meat quantity in the filling.

The Paradise Bakehouse chunky beef pie entry ticked all the boxes judges look for, including crust colour, the thickness and sheen of the pastry and the colour and meat quantity in the filling.

“It had great pastry, really beautiful and the colour was good, and a really nice full chunk – not too big,” he said.

And, like most of the nation, the experts were divided on the most important question.

While Ms Lindsay said “everyone’s got their opinion, but you can’t eat (pies) with a fork,” Mr Musgrave was more pragmatic.

“You can use a fork or a spoon or you can pick it up and eat it out of that paper bag,” he said.

“As long as you’re eating a pie, it doesn’t bother me.”

Paradise Bakehouse can be found at Shop 4, 1 Murdochs Rd Moore Park Beach and 29 Innes Park Rd, Innes Park.