August 18, 2014
By Browyn Marquardt *
When I was a child, one of my favourite treats was a visit to Kefford’s Bakery. This magical little store in Kingaroy sold the most mouth-watering pies. On a Saturday morning, people would queue patiently to get one.
My favourite was chicken and veal, but there was also steak and kidney. Crispy pastry, with chunky, meaty fillings. It was always a treat on shopping day. The pastry on the top was puffy; the pastry below delightfully moist.
If we’d been really good, or people were coming to visit, Mum would let us have cake as well. Rainbow cakes, Neapolitan slices, passionfruit sponge, and cream buns – everyone had a favourite. The ladies on the counter would remove the slabs of cake with reverence, and deftly slice a portion off to be placed in a box and taken home. Oh how we loved shopping day.
And I’m not alone. When I reminisced about Kefford’s on Facebook recently, loads of my friends shared their own memories.
“Best pies ever,” said one. “Have never had another cake like it.”
I’ve always thought it sad that Kingaroy Street no longer had a pie shop, so I was delighted when I heard that Magpies was opening.
The couple behind Booie Bello Vista, Lisa Vandenberg and Mike Giles, thought up the venture which focusses on fast food that is healthy.
“This is a fair dinkum pie shop with a real chef cooking the meat as the focus for the product,” Lisa said.
“Our pies are full of quality meat like wagyu beef, organic chicken and prime steak, with no cereal fillers or artificial flavourings.”
Did you know that in Australia pies only have to contain 25 per cent meat? And that the rest is often cereal fillers, extenders, which don’t taste nice, so artificial flavours are used to make them pie taste better.
A further problem is the definition of meat. According to Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, meat consists of: “The skeletal muscle of the carcass of any buffalo, camel, cattle, deer, goat, hare, pig, poultry, rabbit or sheep, slaughtered other than in a wild state (ie. not bush meat), plus any attached animal rind, fat, connective tissue, nerve, blood and blood vessels”. Then it’s thickened with gelatin which comes from skin, ligaments, tendons and bones. Ewww.
But at Magpies, Mike and Lisa buy whole cuts of meat, aged it until tender, and cut the sinew and fat off it. They also bone their own organic chickens, so they can be sure only the best quality meat is going into their pastries.
“Our meat content is 80 per cent and the rest is whatever the other ingredient. So it could be mushroom in a beef and mushroom pie for example,” Lisa said.
The focus is on local ingredients, with Mike keen to try a Barkers Creek pork pie next, and to turn navy beans into a delicious Mexican pie. Peanuts will also used.
Lisa, who remembers Kefford’s pies but thinks Mike’s are better, say he brings his extensive knowledge as a chef to the pastry, which is blind-baked before the filling goes in.
Free range eggs are used in the quiche, cheesecakes, and other produce.
The pie flavours are more varied than in the Kefford’s day, and vary depending on what’s available and feedback from the public.
Pepper and chilli pies have been fast-sellers, as have the chicken and camembert. Mr 13, who is very fussy, says his beef and mushroom pie was the best he’s ever tasted.
There are vegetarian options for non-meat eaters, and there are plans for a gluten-free pie as well.
I love the salads. A vegetarian hokkein salad was tasty with just the right amount of crunch, and a vegetable frittata was so yummy I think my carnivore kids would eat it. There are delicious wraps and sushi, made throughout the day so it’s fresh, will be available soon.
Ms Vandenberg and Mr Giles have continued their focus on health by converting their coffee machine so that it will use tank, not town water, due to ongoing concerns about the taste of town water – not to mention that tank water is kinder to expensive coffee machines. And they will be sourcing Profondo beans from Moccapan.
“It’s a squeaky clean approach to real food that’s fast, but is not going to kill you fast,” Ms Vandenberg said.
We will be swooping in and swooping out often. Whoever thought the great Aussie pie could be healthy?
* Bronwyn Marquardt blogs at Maid In Australia
