Completed ‘UK pie map’ revealed as regional ingredients celebrated with ‘new’ pies

Many regions in the UK are already celebrated for their distinctive pies – from Melton Mowbray Pork Pies in Leicestershire to Forfar Bridies in Angus, Bedfordshire Clangers and Cornish Pasties – with ingredients reflecting local produce synonymous with each area.

Despite this rich heritage, the UK 'pie map' has, until now, had significant gaps, with many regions lacking an associated pie. Following a nationwide quest to fill these blanks, hundreds of people submitted ingredient suggestions featuring locally sourced produce that would create pies truly reflecting their regions.

These submissions have now been formed into basic recipes to create a newly completed UK pie map – with each key region being assigned a pie, including London, which has been represented by a East End Pie & Mash –a Minced beef with parsley liquor and creamy mash topping.

A live tasting session at Divertimenti Cookery School in London then helped to determine an overall winner among the 'new' regional pies. The event, hosted by Zyliss, the cleverly Swiss brand, featured MasterChef 2020 Winner Thomas Frake and cookery author Jo Pratt conducting a live baking demonstration.

The evening event showcased five pies in total, which had been shortlisted by Zyliss's in-house team from ingredient and recipe recommendations received from right across the UK and Northern Ireland. These inputs were then turned into filling suggestions for dozens of new potential regional pies, before this long list was whittled down to five.

The five new regional pie finalists were:

• The Sussex Lob-star Pie – a luxurious shellfish pie featuring lobster caught off the Sussex coast and broccoli with a rich and creamy filling.
• The Yorkshire Wensleydale & Leek Pie – combining Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese with sweet leeks in a golden pastry crust.
• The Ayrshire Haggis & Neeps Pie – blending haggis with mashed neeps and a peppery gravy alongside a dash of Scottish whisky.
• The Pembrokeshire Lamb & Laverbread Pie – a true taste of Wales using tender Welsh lamb with the umami richness of traditional laverbread.
• The Armagh Pork, Bramley Apple & Irish Whiskey Pie – featuring Armagh Bramley apples, locally sourced pork and a splash of Irish whiskey.

The final cook-off took place at Divertimenti on the 25th February 2025, where the pies were prepared using Zyliss's latest kitchen tools. Guests sampled each pie before casting their vote, with the Pembrokeshire Lamb & Laverbread Pie subsequently claiming the crown, having stood out for its rich flavour and authentic representation of Welsh culinary heritage, while offering a fresh spin on the traditional Pastai Penfro.

Thomas Frake, MasterChef 2020 Winner, commented on the winning effort, saying: "The Pembrokeshire Pie was a fitting testament to the tastes of the region – with exceptional Welsh lamb mixed with local favourite laverbread to create a genuinely delicious pie. A worthy winner!"

Jo Pratt echoed that sentiment, saying: "All of the pies had a wonderful yet diverse range of tastes, so it was incredibly difficult to pick an overall favourite, but the Pembrokeshire flavour combination just pipped the others to the post."

Commenting on the creation of the pie map and the subsequent winner, Heidi Thomas, Head of Marketing at DK Household Brands, which includes Zyliss, said: "The UK's pie history is rich in tradition, with some fantastic regional pies out there. We wanted to celebrate that heritage by filling in the blank spaces as best we could by calling on local people to submit their suggestions. Collating these, we then mapped out potential pie suggestions right across the UK managing to fill in as many gaps as possible, before picking our ‘favourite five’ to pass the live taste test in front of a dedicated foodie audience.”

She added: “Although enjoying five fantastic pies was clearly a tough task, we were able to dig deep and find a winner in the hotly contested yet very deserving Pembrokeshire Pie.”

To view the new UK pie map in detail and see the curated pie filling suggestions, as well as accessing the recipes for the top five pies, please visit Zyliss’s website: https://zyliss.co.uk/blogs/recipes/regional-pie-filling-recipes

To further celebrate the UK’s pie heritage, Zyliss is encouraging people to attempt to make the ‘new’ regional pies and share images and a taste review of their creations on Instagram using the hashtag #UKPieMap and tag @zylissofficial with the chance to win Zyliss’s 7 piece utensils set. Entries will run up until 11:59pm on 31 March 2025.

Heidi Thomas concluded: “Whilst we’ve done our best to represent as broad a swathe of the UK as we can, we were beholden to the suggestions that came in – so we’d be delighted to hear any additional regional pie ingredient suggestions if people are keen to pad out the map even further, or if they’d like an already existing pie in their region to be added and given their appropriate place in the limelight.”