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At Harry’s Bar in Wigan, preparations are under way for the World Pie Eating Championship on December 15, 2005.

For
the uninitiated, such a contest conjures up images of lardy blokes
randomly shoving any old pies down their throats in a messy pie fest.
Think again. 

According to Tony
Callaghan of Harry’s Bar, the pies have to be produced to strict
guidelines - and only the world’s top pie-makers need apply for the
honour of making the Championship pies. This is where the science of
pie comes in.

"I’ve taken expert advice from our chefs. We need world-class hand-made pies, consistent in size and texture.

The
cooked dimensions need to ensure a diameter of 12cm and a depth of
3.5cm inches, and a pie wall angle from base to top of between zero and
15 degrees."

Spongification - or facial spillage?

"These
pies have to be top quality," says Tony.  "we don’t want the cream
cracker factor resulted in a dry mouth and therefore what we would term
a ’swallow-stall’, nor do we want a filling that is over-absorbent and
therefore provokes spongification in competitors’ bellies thereby
delivering premature digestive over-capacity.

"A
pie that is too crumbly will produce a contest that could result in
facial spillage and thereby short-weight consumption - and loss of
credibility in the eyes of the world’s gastronomes.

"A
pie with too runny a filling might well result in some fast eating
times but would not be representative of the quality of pie expected of
the world’s top pie-makers."

World class

So
will a Wigan pie-maker rise to the challenge? And what shame would it
bring on the town if an ‘outsider’ won the tender to make the
Championship pies?

"We are confident a
pie-maker from Wigan will provide and deliver pies to the appropriate
standards and specifications, however in the interests of promoting
regional good will we may possibly consider pies from outside of Wigan."

Entries
are invited from all over the world, although early indications are
that the most distantly-based competitor will be from
Ashton-in-Makerfield.

"If the Americans
can stage a world championship with baseball teams only from America,
then we can do this with pies in Wigan and still maintain our world
championship classification."

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