McMullens' chef wins pie competition

With steak and ale pie one of the most popular dishes on pub menus, a McMullens chef has won a competition to have his recipe used across the family brewer's estate.

Proving that British pub grub is of international quality, the winner is Eduardo Martin, head chef at Milton Keynes' Old Beams pub - who is originally Spanish.

The annual McMullen and Brakes recipe competition, open to all kitchen teams across McMullen's managed pubs, tasked pubs to come up with a pie filling using one of McMullen's cask ales.

Six finalists were chosen and put through their paces at McMullen's training and development kitchen in Hertford before an independent judging panel.

The top three were invited to McMullen's retail conference at Newmarket Races where Eduardo was announced as the overall winner, His prize is £500 cash and the chance to see his dish go into production at Creative Foods at Flint in Wales.

John Trelfa, judge and product development manager at Creative Foods said: "All of the dishes we sampled were of excellent quality, but we were particularly impressed by the overall thought and care Eduardo put into his recipe.

"His combination of flavours was spot on, with the rosemary perfectly complementing the Country Ale and earthy mushrooms while the meat was beautifully tender. His overall method and attention to detail really set him apart."

Eduardo commented: "Originally being from Ibiza my manager set me the challenge to see how British I could make my creativity and entered me into the competition. I took the basic elements of the traditional pie and added a small amount of rosemary, thyme, chestnut field mushrooms, baby onions and quality British braising steak.

"To win the competition against experienced British chefs gives me great pride and proves passion conquers all!"