New Zealand’s best pie named

July 31, 2025

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A bakery in Albany, Auckland, has won the title of New Zealand’s best pie for 2025 with a potato top creation.

The winning pie, made by Rosedale Bakery & Café, earned the top prize at the 2025 Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Awards. Owner and baker Samraksmey So created the dish, which is only the second potato top pie ever to win this award.

Unlike a regular potato pie, So’s version features two potato layers – a crispy, swirled potato top and a middle made from soft, buttery, French-style potatoes. The slices are fried with garlic, rosemary, and butter, then baked inside the pie for a golden finish.

So said the key to success is using top-quality ingredients from the mince to the pastry. He spent a year perfecting his recipe after earning a “highly commended” award last year.

Celebrity chef judge Nici Wickes praised the pie as “a clear winner,” calling it surprising and creative. So now plans to try a new pie idea for the 2026 competition.

Rosedale Bakery isn’t new to awards. In 2023, they won silver for their mince and cheese pie and were named best sausage roll makers in the country.

Other 2025 gold winners include pies from bakeries across Auckland, Wellington, Huntly, and Silverdale in categories like bacon & egg, steak & cheese, vegetarian, and more.

Article written by Milli Banbury

This article was written using AI as an assistive tool for research, writing, and proofreading.
The te reo Māori version of this article was translated with AI assistance. While care has been taken to keep it accurate, if you spot anything that doesn't read quite right, please let us know

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Digital Thinking

On Saturday morning, a group of Year 8 students met at a beach near Tauranga for a community clean-up. They brought gloves, sacks, and water bottles. At first, the sand looked almost clean, but as the group moved closer to the rocks, they found bottles, food wrappers, and fishing line tangled in the seaweed. One student noticed that small pieces of plastic were hardest to collect because they blended in with the shells. By midday, the students had filled eight large bags. Their teacher said the real success was not only the rubbish they removed, but also the way the students helped protect the wildlife that lives along the shore.

Which sentence best summarises the main idea of the passage?

The students brought gloves, sacks, and water bottles to the beach. The students found that small pieces of plastic were hardest to collect because they blended in with the shells. By midday, the students had filled eight large bags with rubbish. A group of students cleaned up a beach and helped protect the wildlife there.