Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

‘Pies without prejudice’: Why customers up and down Scotland can’t get enough of The WeeCOOK Kitchen’s pies

Post Thumbnail

When it comes to making top quality artisan pies, Hayley Wilkes of The WeeCOOK Kitchen knows her stuff…

Based in village of Barry, near the small town of Carnoustie, lies one of the hardest-working kitchens in Angus. And this busy wee kitchen is also home to some of the best pies in the area, with customers demanding monthly trips to as far north as Aberdeen and as far south as Glasgow.

Having experienced huge success with The WeeCOOK Kitchen during the pandemic as a result of Haley’s resilience and attitude to changing her business model to adapt to the situation, the venue has become one of the most well-known for top quality artisan pies.

Operating her own pie store from the venue in Barry having been forced to close her new pie shop in the Wellgate Centre in Dundee due to Covid-19, Hayley was inspired to make her own “proper” pies after having a bad experience with one at a football match.

Customers up and down the country want a taste of Hayley’s pies.

She said: “The pies are really loaded and have more meat than what you’d get in a pie at the football. We wanted to make something that was a meal in itself.

There were two reasons I started making pies. One was because I wanted to use the leftovers we had to create something really high quality, and the second was when I went to the football and had a curry pie there was only two bits of chicken in it and it was rubbish. I knew I could make them better and it has just grown and grown since we launched.

“There’s mince and tatties, beef bourguignon style, chicken and bacon and others that are a little more adventurous. We wanted to provide proper gourmet pies to customers. Our more artisan pies would be the hoisin one and chicken and chorizo which we launch soon.

“It’s pies without prejudice. People pay £3.50 for one of these pies and they are great quality. We use quality meat from the local butchers, veg from a local veg mongers, and they are all seasoned well and have delicious sauces.”

Some of the pies straight out the oven.

Award-winning

But Hayley’s pies aren’t just any old pies, many of them are award-winning, with numerous flavours bagging Great Taste titles and one taking home the bronze medal at the World Scotch Pie Awards.

“We’ve launched some Six Nations pies and have entered them into awards before. We have won awards already for our black pudding, stilton and onion marmalade pie in 2017, we got a bronze in the World Scotch Pie awards for our vegan curry one, and have Great Taste awards for the chicken and bacon pie. We’ve won quite a lot of awards for them actually.

The Six Nations pack.

“We launched a Six Nations selection box recently and it has gone down a storm. We’re also looking to do something different for Mother’s Day. We’re toying with a box called ‘Mother’s Ruin’ and it will feature the 12 mini pies of lockdown. It will be a gift box and we’ll pair it with gins or something like that if we can. It will be something unusual for people to gift instead of cake or afternoon tea.”

What makes a good pie?

But what is it that makes a good pie and one worth enjoying this British Pie Week?

“It has got to be tasty, be well baked and look and taste as good in equal parts. The care and attention to detail is a big part of it and how it has been glazed, baked, and how it is stored or displayed is so important. You’ve got to show them real TLC. We really look after the pies,” said Hayley.

“People will have them and come back, we have built such a following around the pies, it is almost like a cult of pie lovers. They just love the quality pies we have been making.”

Hayley Wilkes of The WeeCOOK Kitchen.

Hands on the pies

Travelling up and down the country, The WeeCOOK Kitchen pies are in high demand, with Hayley and her team delivering locally daily, to Dundee once a week, and to areas including Aberdeen and Glasgow once a month to keep their customers happy and fed.

That’s not forgetting her four-legged customers who also love their pie fix.

She added: “The pies are on the menu when the restaurant is open, and we have our pie takeaway running just now. You can buy them as a deli item from our pie shop at The WeeCOOK Kitchen. A lot of people will pre-order them and we run it almost like a drive-through. We offer free delivery daily to Carnoustie, Broughty Ferry and other areas.

“For Dundee we deliver one a week with a scheduled drop, once a month to Aberdeen, Laurencekirk and Montrose, once a month to Forfar and Glasgow once a month. These are all places we’d like to be at markets so this is our way around it. People also want them, so we’re just trying to deliver them to where our customers are.

Pies coming out of the oven.

“We did try send them by post but because they are so heavy, they are expensive to post. I’d love to get them down to England and Wales, but they are very heavy. Our mini ones have gone out via the Taste of Angus box, but that’s all we’re doing just now.

“We’ve also got pies for dogs called poochie pies which have just as good quality ingredients in them. We trim our chicken breasts and the bits we don’t use go into the poochie pies. There’s dogs getting the same quality pies as their humans, but a baby version.”


For more on food and drink…