A bakery boss has described being crowned the winner of the World Scotch Pie Championship as the "icing on the cake".
JB Christie bakers of Airdrie, Lanarkshire, took home the title after judges taste-tested a record number of pastry products.
More than 100 butchers and bakers submitted 500 pies, pasties, sausage rolls, bridies and savouries into the competition, now in its 14th year, which culminates with the naming of the maker of the best Scotch pie in the world.
Andrew Chisholm only bought the bakers, which has shops in Airdrie and Coatbridge, three months ago and praised the staff as "the best in the land".
He said: "It's overwhelming, it's just unbelievable.
"I could never have expected this at all. I've bought a fantastic company and they've been recognised for what they do.
"We hadn't entered it for a couple of years, it was the biggest field ever entered and to win it is fantastic.
"The staff are all long-serving, they know the business very well and know the standard that's expected, and it's great to be recognised for it today.
He added: "It's the icing on the cake, what a great start to go into 2013 on the top of this and hopefully lots of people come and want to try the pie."
Mr Chisholm said the secret to being the best could lie in the spice used in the pie.
He said: "John Christie, who owned the business before me, made a comment to say that it's better the pie to be too spicy than to not be spicy at all and I think the Christie's pie does have a bit of a kick to it and it has good flavour to it."
The company also took a gold award for its speciality onion pie in the hot savoury category.
Second prize in the Scotch pie category went to The Little Bakery of Dumfries, with Denholm Bakers of Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, taking the third spot at a ceremony in Dunfermline, Fife, today.
Competition founder Alan Stuart said: "I am a proud man.
"Once again we have brought together the best pies and baked goods in the land and today we can really celebrate the achievement of our hard-working butchers and bakers.
"My heartfelt congratulations go to our winner, and indeed everyone today taking away a prize, they are all winners in my book."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article