A slice of the pie: Timaru apprentices prepare for national competition

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A slice of the pie: Timaru apprentices prepare for national competition

A slice of the pie: Timaru apprentices prepare for national competition
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| The Timaru Herald | Rachel Comer |

An apprentice baker is seeking another piece of the pie as she prepares for her third shot at a national award.

Gloriavale leaver Lianna MacFarlane, an employee at Timaru’s popular U-Bake, was second in the Apprentice Pie Maker Awards in 2024, with her high-scoring mince and cheese pie and chicken and leek gourmet pie. Last year she was named in the top 10.

Now qualified in bread baking, and studying the cake and biscuit strand of her apprenticeship, MacFarlane is back for another go at the awards, with the winner to be announced on June 11.

And this time she will be joined by a fellow apprentice, who had just started the training through U-Bake.

MacFarlane said there were a lot of different components that made up a good pie.

“You’ve got to get your pastry really good,’’ she said.

“It’s just all the different steps, making it, and you’ve got to get each step right … each step marks the whole pie.’’

MacFarlane’s skills do not stop at pies, a she also decorates biscuits for the bakery during her nightshifts.

She described it as “quite a complicated job’’. Growing up she had enjoyed art and crafts and decorating was an extension of that.

“The fact that I get to do that here, after I’ve done my baking for the night, I love it.’’

Bakery owner Simon Bruce said he had every confidence in both apprentices and loved the energy they brought to the bakery environment.

He said MacFarlane had registered on the day entries opened and had been doing preparation and homework. She had already worked out what she would make.

The apprentice scheme was something Bruce valued as the trainees were an asset to the business.

About 10 years ago when considering offering an apprenticeship Bruce spoke with his NZ Bakels representative and learnt the company covered the entire apprenticeship programme.

Since then he had not looked back and one of his first apprentices still worked for him, and he recently took on two school leavers who wanted to be bakers.

Bruce was also an award-winning baker and had been selected to compete in a sausage roll making competition at the Baking Association of Australia industry trade show in the Gold Coast in June.

In 2022, he was second in the Baking Industry Association of New Zealand’s Great NZ Hot Cross Bun competition, after being third in 2021, fifth in 2020, fourth in 2019, and first in 2018.