Apprentice star Phil Turner's company triumphs at British Pie Awards

Turner’s Pies picked up three accolades, taking home the prizes for the vegan category with its butternut chilli and vegan cheese pie, the dessert category with its Dutch apple pie and the meat and potato class with its steak and potato pie.

The Chichester company is owned by Phil Turner who is currently fighting it out on BBC hit show The Apprentice to be Lord Alan Sugar’s business partner.

A pie being judged (Image: Submitted)

The pie-oneering awards, now in their 16th year, celebrate the nation’s most delicious pies "from the traditionally British to the tantalisingly innovative and totally whacky". The contest comprises 24 classes or types of pie including traditional favourites as well as vegetarian, vegan and gluten free versions.

This year there was a new category for fusion pie, which combines the British tradition of a fully enclosed pastry but with fillings based on flavours from around the world.  

Based in West Sussex since 1933, family-run Turner’s bake pies daily from scratch using the "finest ingredients".  The family recipes date back over 90 years.

Pies being judged at the British Pie Awards (Image: British Pie Awards)

Matthew O’Callaghan, chairman of the Mowbray Pork Pie Association and host of the British Pie Awards, said: “This year's awards have seen a wonderful celebration of the nation’s love of pies, the atmosphere has been amazing and the level of creativity is off the scale.

“On Wednesday we got to try the phenomenal pie entries and Turner’s Pies triumphed over incredibly tough competition in not one, not two but three categories. These awards celebrate the skill and ingenuity of British pie makers across the UK and I’d like to congratulate them as a worthy winner.”

A record 147 judges were on the judging panel this year, with extensive industry experience between them.  The panel included representatives from the prestigious cookery school Cordon Bleu as well as a plethora of chefs and pie experts.