Of starting the business back in 2011, Matt says: “The original plan was a deli – I’d always wanted to have my own deli and utilise my experience as a Chef.
Following a few years of being in bands, making tunes and working as a Chef, I went off to France and then Canada to ski and work in restaurants and chalets. After a year of living in Canada, I went to a Thanksgiving meal and wanted to splice a British classic with a Canadian staple, so I made a BBQ Pulled Pork Pie. Everyone totally loved it.
When I finally returned to the UK, I didn’t want to just fall back into my old life; I wanted to do something different. So, I started a deli in Hull’s Old Town selling gourmet sandwiches, olive pots, and homemade soups and stews, but it quickly became obvious that the pies we sold were the stars of the show. We had people flocking from all over the city to come and try them, and within a few months we were No. 1 on TripAdvisor.
Over the years we’ve traded at thousands of events, weddings, markets, supplied a number of pubs and cafes, and at one point we had five of our own retail outlets! But, times have changed a lot over the years, and we’ve had to roll with the punches and learn how to PIVOT!! We are now focusing on markets and events, wholesale, and our brand new national mail order service, which we are so excited about!”
Kate says “The first event I worked was Yum Food Festival in 2014, and it was brilliant. We had cobbled the stall together with old bits of equipment and everything was wobbling around. I spilt gravy all over myself. I remember uttering a few choice words…
But Matt and Jim who worked in the kitchen with him worked their absolute socks off to bake enough pies for the event, and once it got going I couldn’t believe the response. It was so exciting to witness the buzz about these products firsthand by talking to customers and handling the huge queues!
On the first day we sold out, and again on the second day. We brought extra pies down to the event but we had to keep some back to ensure we could manage all three days. It was a manic and heady few days.
Since then, we’ve drastically improved our events set-up and traded at major events across the region. The shifts are long and hot work but it’s exhilarating and immensely rewarding serving the queues and hearing the passionate feedback from our customers.
We’ve been through lots of ups and downs as a business, but things seem to be stabilising more these days. We’re currently regulars at markets in Beverley and Cottingham, and with our mail order service up and running, we feel there are exciting times ahead.
In 2015 we won the Remarkable East Yorkshire Tourism Award for Best Food Provider. We’d spent the past few years getting quite a lot of publicity and building quite a following, and when we got nominated I thought it was amazing, but then when they read out our name as the winner, I just couldn’t believe it.
We were up against some really prominent big businesses in Yorkshire and I was sure one of them would win. But that proved to be the first in a series of awards.
After winning the REYTA, we then went on to win at the Hull BID Awards, Made In Hull Awards, we’ve classed with a number of our pies in the British Pie Awards. We’ve continued our winning streak ever since, recently winning Best Free From product at the Yorkshire Post Taste Awards for our Gluten Free Succulent Steak Pie, but the REYTA was the first and it really meant a lot to us.
“I’d have to say it’s the BBQ Pulled Pork. It’s one of the reasons I started the business, it’s one of the most innovative flavours and it just tastes so good.
Ever since we started, it’s been one of the most popular choices on our menu, which is why we’ve now included it in our gluten free range as well.”
“Well, we’ve been trading since November 2011, and I would say I’ve had at least one pie on average every day since then, excluding the occasional Sunday. So, maybe around 1800.”
