Pasty champions crowned - and they may surprise you


The championships saw nearly 100 competitive bakers and pasty companies compete

The winners of the first Global Pasty Championships have been crowned - and they may come as a surprise.

The contest saw nearly 100 bakers and pasty companies bring their lovingly crafted pasties to The Lost Gardens of Heligan near St Austell. But although pasties are synonymous with Cornwall, bakers from Bristol dominated the event, with bakers from the West Country city winning both individual titles and one of the two junior categories.

Vanessa Farr from Bristol, who took home the title in the Cornish pasty individual category, said: "I'm pleased to win this because I was up against professional bakers as well as amateurs, so this is a big one."

Fellow winners from the city included Max Baker, who won the alternative pasty individual category with a chicken in barbecue sauce pasty, and Finley, who triumphed in the alternative pasty junior category with a chicken fajita pasty.

And some participants for other events during Cornish Pasty Week travelled from a lot further than Bristol to take part.

Yuriko Shigyo made the trip from Tokyo in Japan to take part for the second time. "I really enjoyed returning to the crimping competition. The gardens here are so beautiful. I'm looking forward to coming again next year to enter the pasty contest," she said.

The competition was organised in partnership with the Cornish Pasty Association. Jason Jobling, chairman of the organisation, said: "The Global Pasty Championships has been a fantastic celebration of our national dish and a great way to bring a most memorable Cornish Pasty Week to a close."

Fond memories of a trip to Penzance and a real pasty - thank you GBM.

Couple Furious After Touring Cornwall’s Top Destinations Only to Find No Ginsters Pasty Shops

Charles and Miranda Fairfax-Hughes, a couple from up-country, have said their Cornish holiday was “fundamentally disappointing” after travelling to every major tourist hotspot in the Duchy and failing to find a single Ginsters pasty shop.

The couple said their dream was to visit Cornwall, walk into a Ginsters “just like Greggs”, and sit on the beach enjoying what they described as “a proper, real Cornish pasty”.

Instead, they claim they were confronted by dozens of “small, unfamiliar pasty brands” selling freshly baked food made on site.

“We appreciate these little independent places trying their best to imitate Ginsters,” said Charles, “but they’re so small they can’t even afford a machine to press the pasty into shape. It honestly looked like they’d folded it with their hands.”

[continues]

I shall endeavour to purchase one, from the layby on the A38 just east of the Limekiln roundabout, for my lunch tomorrow. 

I shall endeavour to purchase one, from the layby on the A38 just east of the Limekiln roundabout, for my lunch tomorrow. 

Pasties are very contentious in Cornwall!
Everyone has their own favourite baker - some with a lot of pepper (more pepper than pasty!), some with less.
As noted above 

Pasty’s

If the Bristol contingent want a good pasty, Helluva pasty are a good baker not far from my house and are always my choice here. I noticed on Monday they have a hut in a lay-by between Lime Kiln roundabout and the airport.