General News
6 August, 2025
Beaufort in the running for Best Pie
BEAUFORT’s Magnolia Restaurant continued to impress foodies with the establishment in the running to take the title of “Ballarat’s Best Pie".
Ballarat’s Best Pie is returning for its third year, serving up 36 savoury and sweet entries at cafes, bakeries, bars and restaurants.
This year’s event features seven award categories, including three exciting new additions:
Brilliantly Unexpected Pie
Pie with Purpose (rewarding a low-waste or local-produce approach)
People’s Choice Pie (with the public voting for their favourite from 1–31 August)
While most entries are from Ballarat Central, Magnolia and Learmonth’s Café 321 are also in the running for their high class pies.
On the menu at Magnolia is a confit lamb pie served with creamy potato royale and burgundy jus.
The lamb has been slow cooked in fat for 18 hours, along with vegetables cooked in lamb stock.
"To keep the pie moist and flavoursome, we have also used chicken farce inside the pie, which gives it a nice layer that you can see when it's served," chef Anjal Joshi said.
"I am also using organic silverbeet grown in my own garden which wraps the whole pie, plus a good butter puff pastry to finish it,” he said.
On the menu at 321 Café Learmonth is a pollo enchilada pie.
The puff pastry shell is filled with poached chicken, herbs, spices, onion, avocado and jalapeno, and topped with salsa, sour cream and pastry wedges.
Mexican is chef David Chambers' favourite cuisine to both cook and eat, so he was keen to "mix Mexican with Australian in a pie."
Ballarat’s Best Pie is a signature winter initiative of Tourism Midwest Victoria, which is supported by the City of Ballarat.
It is intended to drive visitation to the Ballarat region by shining a light on the region’s talented producers, chefs and local businesses.
“Winter is a season where regional Victoria really shines – especially when comfort food is involved. Ballarat’s Best Pie has quickly become one of our most-loved annual events and has proven to be a powerful driver of visitation across our region,” said Chairman John Pandazopolous.
“Whether it’s a pie with purpose or one that pushes the flavour boundaries, this event is all about celebrating our local producers, chefs and hospitality operators – and giving people a delicious reason to visit Ballarat this August.”
Tim Bone, chef and 2025 Ballarat’s Best Pie judge, said he’s looking forward to sampling the regions best pies.
“A hot pie on a cold Ballarat day is one of life’s simple pleasures. But the calibre of entries this year takes things to the next level. From flaky, golden crusts to rich, inventive fillings, I’m beyond excited to see what our local makers are serving up.
As a judge, I get to sample them all (a tough gig, I know!) and I can confidently say this is shaping up to be our best year yet,” he said.
The Ballarat’s Best Pie awards ceremony will take place on Saturday 2 August at Itinerant Spirits, with the expert judging panel including MasterChef Australia favourite Tim Bone, food writer Richard Cornish, restaurant critic Kara Monssen, acclaimed chef Alejandro Saravia and City of Ballarat Deputy Mayor Cr Ben Taylor.
Renowned cook and bestselling author Julia Busuttil Nishimura will host the awards.
From 1–31 August, locals and visitors are encouraged to try as many pies as possible and vote for their top pick via a QR code at participating venues.
A full list of the 2025 pies and a downloadable map can be found at ballaratsbestpie.com.au
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