WIDE CHOICE: Martin Meehan of Kidds Bakery is in competition mode after entering this year's Supreme Pie Awards.

A good pie is not a fine French pastry; it's not supposed to explode.

At least, that is what veteran baker Martin Meehan, owner of Kidds Cakes and Bakery in Cranford St believes.

"You can't have the [pie] pastry exploding. Lots of people eat pies in cars and it's not good if it explodes," he says.

"The base has got to have distinctive layers and be tasty in itself and it's got to hold the filling in."

Meehan is one of 505 bakers and bakery owners nationwide who have sent in entries for the 2013 Bakels Supreme Pie Awards, as are Ainsley Walter and partner Mark Stewart of the Hororata Pie Cart who bought the famous Hororata pie recipes in 2011.

Walter agrees with Meehan about the exploding pastries.

"There's nothing worse than buying a pie and ending up with filling all over your lap," she says.

The pie fillings vary from traditional to the exotic. Meehan's entries included a Sri Lankan satay chicken pie with cream cheese, and a sweet brandy apricot pie with a coconut base.

"We have a Sri Lankan baker and I just said go for it," he said. While he found the satay pie to be pretty spicy, he rather liked the apricot pie.

Walter, on the other hand, decided to be more traditional and sent in a steak pie as the history was very much part of the pie.

A good pie is all about the ingredients used and the care that is taken when making it, Meehan says.

"We have a sign above our oven saying: ‘If you take care, the pie will take care of itself.' Now, the oven is not going to make a bad pie into a good pie, but if you care about the food you're producing, it shows."

For Walter, it's about passion and the meat. "For New Zealanders, pies used to be all about meat, and a pie was a meal in itself with hardly any gravy. Our steak pie is chock full of steak and just enough gravy to make it delectable," she says.

However, regardless of exoticness or tradition, both bakers agree there is one pie to rule them all.

"Steak and cheese. We are rebuilding Christchurch on steak and cheese," Meehan says.

The taste:

Brandied apricots with coconut base: The pastry is crumbly and soft and the pie broke up in the car during the commute back to the office. Instead of chopped up apricots in syrup, whole apricot halves were used and they looked like little suns on coconut snow. The tartness of the apricots balances out the sweetness of the coconut and the pastry.

Sri Lankan satay chicken with cream cheese: The pastry is softened after the pie had to be reheated in the microwave for lunch. The puff pastry top glistens with a lot of brushed-on egg. The satay is mildly spicy with a hint of coconut milk, and it's been made with capsicums and onions as well as chicken. Combined with the dollop of cream cheese in the centre, it makes for an interesting fusion of Eastern and Western tastes.

Both are available from Kidds Cakes and Bakery, 244 Cranford St.