Albany bakery’s potato top judged New Zealand’s best pie of 2025
The best pie in the country is officially a potato top.
Rosedale Bakery & Cafe, in the Auckland suburb of Albany, has been declared the winner of the 2025 Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Awards.
Created by bakery owner Samraksmey So, it is only the second potato top pie to take out the top prize in the history of the competition.
So’s creation isn’t a stock standard mince and mash medley. Instead it has both a potato top and potato middle - comprised of a swirled potato top with a core of fondant-style cooked potatoes finished in au gratin layers.
So developed the recipe after seeing a dish of French-style layered potatoes in a magazine, explaining “We take the time to fry the potatoes and then we put them on a tray with butter, garlic and rosemary and we bake them off. We cut them with a round cutter after baking and put them in the pie and bake again, and they look like a crispy outside.”
So told Herald NOW this morning the secret to a supreme pie is supreme ingredients saying whether it’s the mince inside to the flour used to make the casings, they “use everything that is good quality” when baking their perfect pastries.
Celebrity chef judge Nici Wickes said the potato pie was “a clear winner” during the blind tasting process last week.
“It surprised me because it’s one of the more usual categories and yet really innovative.”
So said he spent a year tweaking and perfecting the recipe after winning a highly commended in the potato top pie category last year and intends on creating something new to enter into the 2026 awards.
This isn’t the bakery’s first brush with glory, in 2023 they were awarded a silver award for their mince and cheese entry in the pie awards, and took home the prize for best sausage roll in the country.
2025 New Zealand Bakels Supreme Pie Award Gold Winners
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Bacon & Egg: Sean Vo, Levain Artisan Bakery, Blockhouse Bay Auckland
Mince & Gravy: Sopheap Long, Euro Patisserie, Torbay, Auckland
Mince & Cheese: Michael Gray, Nada Bakery, Wellington
Potato Top: Samraksmey (Sam) So, Rosedale Bakery & Café, Albany, Auckland
Steak & Gravy: Sok Heang Nguon, Taste Bakery and Roast, Henderson, Auckland
Steak & Cheese: Sok Keo, Milldale Bakery, Wainui, Auckland
Chicken & Vegetable: Mengheng (Jason) Hay, Richoux Patisserie, Ellerslie, Auckland
Gourmet Meat: Buntha Meng, Wild Grain Bakery, Silverdale, Auckland
Vegetarian: Sopheap Long, Euro Patisserie, Torbay, Auckland
Café Boutique: Ellie Linton-Brown, Main Street Café, Huntly
Commercial/Wholesale: Dad’s Pies, Silverdale, Auckland.
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Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
New BEGINNERS LINEDANCING CLASS
Epsom Methodist church
12 pah Rd GREENWOODS cnr. Epsom
Monday 9th February 7pm - 9pm
Tuesday 10th February 10am -11am
Just turn up on the day
Time to Tickle Your Thinker 🧠
If a zookeeper had 100 pairs of animals in her zoo, and two pairs of babies are born for each one of the original animals, then (sadly) 23 animals don’t survive, how many animals do you have left in total?
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