Octobers Producer of the Month is the 2024 Australian Champion duo Ben & Mitch of Orange Pie Company. I sat down this week with Ben & Mitch to chat about how they got started, how they come up with their amazing flavours, and how life's been since their extraordinary win.
So where did the idea for Orange Pie Company come from, and how did you guys get started?
"The idea initially was just to start a little market stall to make some extra beer money.", laughs Ben. "Mitch really wanted to make better quality pies than he could currently buy, and he was so passionate about it that I wanted to help him do it.”
"Everything was going to plan; we'd made 60 pies ready for our first market when it all got called off and Covid happened. Suddenly we had 60 pies and no idea what to do with them, so we put them up on Facebook to try and sell them and offered home delivery. That first weekend was great, we ended up selling out all 60 pies, but the next weekend was just crazy. Someone from Prime News had seen what we were doing and got in contact to do a bit of a feel-good story about us doing something positive despite the lockdown."
"I still remember the story finishing and immediately the phone rang, and then it rang again, and again and again", explains Mitch, still shaking his head from the shock of that memory. "It went on for 2 hours and eventually we had to turn our phones off, it was just overwhelming. We couldn't make enough pies to fill all these orders in a week, so we had to start taking orders for the following weekend. When we started the first batch had been baked 18 at a time in a pizza oven on Mitch's back porch. Now instead of 60 pies we had orders for 250 pies, so we got a second pizza oven!"
Ben remembers, “We struggled to keep customers at the start because we didn't have a website or any marketing ready to go, but when customers kept coming back week after week, I still remember the moment we looked at each other and went "Shit this is actually feasible, this might work!". When that happened, we started looking around for a location to start a shop in. We found this tiny spot in the Orange Homemakers Centre. It wasn’t much but there was an existing kitchen and that’s all we needed. We ended up shoehorning the business into this tiny area, and I remember thinking it looked alright at the time, but looking back it was just terrible", laughs Ben. "A real oddball of a shop” adds Mitch.
"We made it work and we were there for 3 years before moving to where we are now (The Village on Summer) in the middle of last year."
So how many pies were there on offer in that first weekend?
"We started out with just 4 pies and quickly added 2 sausage rolls within the first month, and that’s how it sat for the whole first year cooking at home" Mitch says.
"That 2nd weekend was just nuts, in our new place we can easily make 500-600 pies in a day but in the beginning at home, 100 pies was a hard long day. They were cooked in a little pizza oven that could only fit 18 pies, and then they got stacked on a pool table to cool before wrapping and freezing them, it was a full days work!"
And how was the transition to the new shop?
"It was definitely a tougher move than we were expecting, we lost a lot of regulars who had said they'd love if we were closer to town. But it’s been good as we've gained more new regulars and now have a facility that’s been built to do the job and doubled our capability with a better designed kitchen. The quality has gone up so much too, local chefs have really noticed the difference between the old pies and the pies we've been making in the last 6 months. Our first ever high finish at a pie competition came last year when our Pork and Apple sausage roll came 5th in Australia, and that was after only 2-3 weeks in our new kitchen. We're able to do exactly what we want now and can easily have 18-20 flavours available on any given day. We've ironed out a lot of kinks since we first moved in and have changes we'd like to make, but the win has definitely been made possible thanks to the new kitchen."
Wow so with 18-20 flavours available on any given day, where do the ideas come from?
"Acid" laughs Ben.
"Nah we just look around and go "Cool, this exists, how do I put that in a pie?". We're making a new one today actually, a Swedish meatballs pie, like the IKEA meatballs."
And how many flavours do you think you've done in your 5 years?
"We actually have a list on the wall, but that wouldn't be all of them, were probably close to 200 different pies since we started. Sometimes we do them and they don’t work how we wanted them to, and we will revisit them in 3-4 months, and then there’s others that you know the first time they're done they're going to be good. We've got specials that have just never left. Our Beef Vindaloo pie is about to do that actually, everyone’s a big fan of that, the BBQ Beef, Brisket, Mac & Cheese was the same, and the Maple Bacon & Hazelnut Sausage Roll too. The reaction was so positive that we kept making it and now we can’t stop. That was one that came out of left field actually, I was just experimenting with some hazelnut meal I'd come into and then I opened the oven and everyone out the front suddenly wanted to know what I'd just made. It really hits when its straight out of the oven, that sweet and salty smell accompanied with the bacon is awesome.
So, what’s each of your favourite pie that's gone but you wished had stayed?
"I'm a big fan of the Cubano" says Ben, Mitch agreeing immediately.
"It was a weird, layered pie with Cuban style mojo pork, a layer of Swiss cheese, then ham, pickles and mustard, like a Cuban sandwich but in a pie. Everyone who ate it thought it was amazing, but it was hard to get people to try it, they were put off by the Swiss cheese, or pickles, or not knowing what Cuban pork was. We've actually got a Reuben pie coming soon that will be a bit similar."
"It's funny, we used to have some real mainstay pies and a few specials but now everything is a special, everything could be replaced next week. There’s about a dozen that are constants, like the sausage rolls, but I've got 5 different ideas I want to try to really shake that up soon.", explains Mitch. "I've just finished some Turkey, Bacon & Cranberry sausage rolls that will be coming soon. Maybe some Chicken, Mushroom and Brie too? I don't know, ill experiment with that one. We're always cycling new stuff and old stuff, trying to think of how to bring them back, how can we change it, how can we make it work, how can we do it better this time?"
Is there something you've been wanting to make and its never worked?
"Pizza pie" they immediately say in unison.
"It's this stupid idea where it's a pie but the top is a pizza. Its marinara sauce, pepperoni, like a supreme pizza with all the toppings inside the pie, but then with a pizza on top instead of the pastry. When we made them before, and they looked good they sold like crazy, but it was just so much work. There's been other ideas too like changing some curry pies to have naan bread tops, but we've still got to actually work out how to do that."
"Especially since the pastry is so much of what we make, where if we take the pastry away will it take too much of us away.", adds Ben. "One of our big differences is that we make all our own pastry. We keep it simple, using butter, flour, water, and salt, rather than premade pastry, but it’s really noticeably better, so we think it’s worth the extra work, you can really taste the difference.
With people heating up the frozen ones at home, is there anything that they can do to add finishing touches, and is there anything to add or have with the pies to make them better?
" Pie floaters" they again say in unison. "Tomato sauce is for amateurs" Ben laughingly adds.
"They're definitely the best things to add to the pies, it's the only way to make it better. It's mashed potato, mushy peas and gravy all stacked up on top of the pie.”
"I've had a lot of customers tell me air fryers work really well for the pies too, but I haven't tried it myself yet" says Mitch.
"It only takes about 25 mins, but I haven't had a play with it yet so I can't say for sure, that's just what I've been told. I know people are throwing chips in too with the pies, it’s really easy for people making dinner for one.”
So finally, where you expecting maple bacon to win, and what’s the shop been like since you won?
"Mental, just mental" they both keep repeating. "It’s the only way to describe it."
"Initially because we made it as just a special, I didn't really think of it in that way" says Ben.
"But then when it was so popular, and we kept making it we both started to think maybe we were in with a shot. We put 5 sausage rolls in that comp, and out of the 5 we thought if any could win it would be the Maple Bacon & Hazelnut, it was really good, but it was also unique."
"I heard from one of the judges at the comp as soon as we won that he had actually tried it on the first day just after we dropped them off and said he knew right then that it would win. It was one of the first they tried, and they just knew. It set the bar for everything else."
With big smiles on everyone’s faces we ended our chat there, Mitch itching to get back in the kitchen and get started on his Swedish meatball’s pies.
You can get Orange Pie Company frozen pies and family pies delivered with every regular order, and with new flavours added every week get in fast to get them before they disappear and check back in regularly to see what amazing new flavours Mitch & Ben have come up with.
While all the focus has been on the Maple Bacon & Hazelnut sausage roll, Ben & Mitch won 9 medals at the Great Aussie Pie Competition. Check out their results below for some inspiration of what to get next.
- Maple Bacon & Hazelnut Sausage Roll - 1st place in Aus- Gold Medal
- Pork, Apple & Chinese 5 Spice Sausage Roll - 4th place in Aus - Gold Medal
- BBQ Pulled Pork Pie - Silver Medal
- Spicy Korean Pork Belly Pie - Bronze Medal
- Mango Chicken Pie - Bronze Medal
- Wagyu & Peppercorn Pie - Bronze Medal
- Chicken & Chorizo Sausage Roll - Silver Medal
- Plain Shane Sausage Roll - Silver Medal
- Second Mouse Fetta & Spinach Sausage Roll- Silver Medal
- Will