Pure Pasty in Vienna wins International Award for Pineapple-Filled Pasty
Images: BBQ Chicken Pasty / Michael Burgess (Owner) and Jennifer Swanston (Kitchen Manager)
Pure Pasty won International accolades with their BBQ Chicken pasty, a creation developed by the company’s British chef Nicola Willis Jones with sweet potato, zucchini, red pepper, corn and a small amount of pineapple.
Pure Pasty won honor and accolades at the annual World Pasty Championships in Cornwall, UK last month. It was Pure Pasty’s second visit to the competition, this time winning in the Open Savoury category with their newcomer BBQ Chicken Pasty. The pasty consists of sweet potato, zucchini, red pepper, corn and a small amount of pineapple in it to introduce a sweet yet acidic element to ignite the spice flavors. (Note, the ‘small amount’ of pineapple is just that, coming in at 0.5 oz in a 10 oz pasty).
The award took owner Mike Burgess by surprise. As Mike notes, “we didn’t think we had won anything. The entries in the professional section hadn’t come through and we hadn’t received the ‘are you still here?’ call from the Eden Project Team. Apparently they knew I was there because they had been talking to me all afternoon, so it was a complete surprise. When they announced the winner I turned to Jen with, ‘they have a name that sounds like ours…’ While the Canadians were yelling ‘GET UP IT’S YOU!’ At that stage I didn’t even know what had won!”
It was the BBQ Chicken with that small amount of pineapple in it that caught the attention of the press. This tiny piece of pineapple seemed to tap into the massive ‘pineapple on pizza debate’. Is it right? Is it wrong? We’ll leave it up to you (and the very interested press) to decide, but for now the BBQ Chicken Pasty lives on at Pure Pasty in Vienna where you can stop in and try it for yourself.
