Best Game Pie in Australia - Parker Pies, Rutherglen

Rutherglen’s Parker Pies was awarded Australia’s best gourmet game pie, at the recent Great Australian Meat Pie Competition at Darling Harbour in Sydney.  The awards, held every year, are a celebration of the pie maker’s art and include other categories such as beef, chicken, seafood and vegetarian.  With over 2,000 Australia-wide entries in all categories, the awards are seen as the ‘Jimmy Watson’ of pies and are highly coveted.

Fred Parker of Parker Pies said he felt “relieved and wrapped” to have won the award for his newly created emu pie, named the Ned Kelly.  The pie had its auspicious beginning less than three weeks ago and is a tantalising mixture of tender chunks of emu, potato, carrot and peas in a rich Rutherglen red wine sauce, encased in a home made pastry.

Mr Parker is not new to winning awards for his pies, as one wall of his Rutherglen Bakehouse attests.  All 14 Parker Pies entered in the recent awards received either a best in category or gold, silver or bronze medal.  Parker Pies is now the most celebrated Bakehouse in Victoria, having won over 75 awards at the Great Australian Meat Pie Competition.   His was the only Victorian bakery to have won an award in the competition.

Mr Parker was very pleased with the general response from the Rutherglen community who were “very congratulatory, and that always feels good coming from locals”.  He went on to say that “This award is a confirmation that Rutherglen is not just a great wine destination, but also a region with great food that can compliment the extensive range of table wines and fortified in the area.  We use wine in a number of our pies, but only wine from the Rutherglen region.  We also try to source as much local produce as we possibly can.”

Locals and visitors alike can look forward to sampling the Ned Kelly emu pie in the future, along with other prize winners including sweet chilli chicken and king prawns or the gold medal winning creamy steak and mushroom pie.  Mr Parker stated that his ultimate goal was “to win the best pie in Australia for all six of the award categories.  This might take a while to achieve but I certainly won’t die wondering.”

Photo:  Fred Parker (right) receives the award from Tom Lindsay of Simple Simon, a major sponsor of the event.