When I first started at The Pie Room, we went to the British Museum and there was someone there who showed us books about pies. I’m particularly interested in older pies and the banquets they used to be part of because I like working out how you can make them today, and make them better. History is important when you’re creating something – you shouldn’t lose it. For example, I serve pork pies, which have been around for years and years; we’ve largely kept the recipe the same, but instead of using pig’s stomach lard, now we use leaf lard in the pastry (which comes from around a pig’s kidney) to make it softer.
When we’re doing latticework, we always use a small cutter; sometimes it’s a V shape or a flower. For the other designs we’ll use knives, crimpers or a mix of everything. We often use the moulds [around The Pie Room], but not the beautiful antique ones because they’re quite valuable – there’s even a mould from the 18th century.
I grew up eating pies in South Africa, and still eat them now with my family. Everyone there eats pies as a snack – I would compare it to the sandwich in the UK. My grandma would make some pies at home, but sometimes the pastry was hard and I struggled with it. I also ate pies during university when we were out clubbing – especially at the end of the night because you could get them in petrol stations.