WORLD PASTY CHAMPIONSHIPS 2012
We’ve been trying to avoid all the usual puns with this, so, here we go, the Eden Project bring you……The World Pasty Championships, a celebration of Cornwall’s most famous dish!
The big bake off will take place at the Eden Bakery on March 3, 2012, the Saturday before St Piran’s Day which celebrates the national day of Cornwall. The World Pasty Championships will celebrate the traditional recipe and set the table for amateur and professional bakers to parade their wares. Gaynor Coley, Managing Director of the Eden Project, said: “The pasty is one of the great icons of Cornwall and also one of its best exports, carried in the hands of all those hardy mining families who left this coast and who took their skills – and their favourite food – across the world.
The new event has the backing of the Cornish Pasty Association, which upholds the reputation of the pasty and represents more than 50 bakers. Earlier this year after a long campaign the association won European Union Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status which means that only pasty makers based in Cornwall who make pasties in a traditional manner and follow a traditional recipe are able to label their products as Cornish pasties.
Pasty makers from Cornwall, the rest of the UK and across the world will be invited to enter and a full programme of entertainment is being put together. The event will also showcase local suppliers who sustain the pasty industry in Cornwall – worth more than £65 million to the economy.
For more information on Cornish pasties, go to www.cornishpastyassociation.co.uk