Kyneton’s unassuming Country Cob Bakery has won a nationwide competition for the best pie two years running.
Story John Dunn
Chan Khun’s business card says it all – National Pie Champion. It’s undisputed. This 39-year-old Cambodian migrant, who came here from Phnom Penh as a 24-year-old looking for a better life, makes Australia’s best pies. He has won the Australian Baking Association’s nationwide competition for the best pie for the past two years and he’s hoping for a hat-trick when the 2020 contest comes around in Melbourne in May.
Chan’s unobtrusive Country Cob Bakery in the main street of the small town of Kyneton, in central Victoria, has been dominating the association’s annual contest, which attracts pie-makers from all over. Last year the competition attracted 338 pie-makers from as far west as Ningaloo in the Pilbara, northerners from Noosaville and Port Douglas in Queensland and southerners from Aldinga, Para Hills and from Gisborne to Gundagai. Together, they submitted 1795 pies for the 12 judges to reach their verdicts.
This story excerpt is from Issue #130
Outback Magazine: Apr/May 2020
