Local Is The Best

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday April 10, 2001

By JESSICA BECKLAR and AIKO MARCH

Absolutely ecstatic! That's how David Kelly said he felt when he heard that his shop, Little Jack Horner's, had won the award for best pie in the Great Aussie Meat Pie Competition recently.

David owns the bakery at Argenton along with his wife Fiona and business partner Tony Hughey.

They have had the business for two years and have won more than 40 awards for their delicious pies.

This latest award is special because it is the industry's highest, attracting a field of 1050 entrants from all over Australia and New Zealand.

David Kelly's father owned a pie business so David grew up learning about the industry.

As a youngster his favourite pie was plain beef.

Now he likes Little Jack Horner Super Supreme pies, which contain chunky beef, potatoes, vegetables, cheese, bacon and mushrooms.

The owners of Little Jack Horner's work very hard indeed and are open six-days-a-week, 24-hours-a-day, from Sunday evening right through the week to Saturday afternoon.

They make and sell between 1500 and 2000 pies every day, as well as making breads, cakes and pastries.

Mr Kelly said that each week they have a pie of the week, but their most popular pie was still the good old plain beef pie.

Their secret recipes have been worked on over many years and they adjust it slightly from time to time to come up with the perfect pie for their customers.

Winning the Great Aussie Meat Pie Competition has certainly been good for business.

Mr Kelly said that the number of customers has increased between 300 and 400% since they were announced the winners.

Locals, as well as people from all over the state, are coming in to buy and try their award winning pies.

The busiest days for Little Jack Horner's are Fridays and Saturdays, but it sounds like they keep busy every day of the week producing those delicious pies!