Who’s behind Pieminister, and how did it all start?

We’re Jon Simon and Tristan Hogg, friends and brothers-in-law, and we founded Pieminister in 2003 in an old printworks on Stokes Croft.

While travelling around Australia in our early twenties, we noticed that pie shops there attracted a young crowd, with cool branding and exciting, delicious recipes. Back in the UK in the late 90’s, pies had a terrible image and generally consisted of mystery fillings under a limp, grey pastry lid.

We decided to revive the great British pie to its former glory in our hometown of Bristol.

From the beginning, it was a proper family effort. Jon’s wife, and Tristan’s sister, Romany handled the PR. Our university friend Ryan created the branding, and Tristan’s school mate Simon came on board to help with the baking.

You started in Bristol and have grown far beyond it, how has the city shaped who you are?

From the first day we opened our doors on Stokes Croft, we’ve felt supported by the local community.

As we’ve grown, that connection has remained important to us. We donate surplus pies every week to FareShare SouthWest and to St Peter’s Hospice, our neighbours near our Bristol bakery. Being able to give back locally really matters to us.

What has stayed important to you as the brand has evolved?

Ethics and sustainability have always been integral to us. In 2020, we formalised this by creating our ‘Pies, Planet, People’ commitments, setting clear and measurable targets to keep us ambitious and accountable.

We’re proud to say we’re officially the most sustainable national pie brand in the UK producing meat, vegetarian and vegan pies.

What does sustainability look like at Pieminister?

With our ‘Pies, Planet, People’ commitments in place to keep us on track, we’re constantly raising our game when it comes to ethics and sustainability.

We source as locally as possible where we can, but we also believe local doesn’t automatically mean better. If there’s a deforestation-free ingredient that needs to be shipped from overseas but meets our standards for quality, ethics and sustainability, we’ll choose that.

We only use free range British chicken and eggs, free range British ham, farm assured British beef and wild British venison.

Our pie boxes are 100% cardboard to make recycling as simple as possible. In our kitchens, we’re aiming for all packaging to be 100% recyclable or reusable. We’re currently at 98.7% and rising year on year.

We recently recertified as a B Corp, we’re a Living Wage Employer, and we’ve joined the UN’s Race to Zero with plans to achieve net zero carbon emissions across all scopes by 2040.

This year, we also installed solar panels on our north Bristol kitchens to support the 100 percent renewable energy supply we already use.

Where do you draw inspiration for new flavours?

Seasonality goes hand in hand with lowering the carbon footprint of our pies. Our recently launched Chana Rama, made with Bold Bean Co’s queen chickpeas, which are available sustainably all-year, is our lowest carbon pie yet.

In our bid to encourage pie lovers away from carbon-heavy beef pies, we’ve focused on introducing more tasty non-beef recipes.

Most of our pies are our interpretation of classic British flavours, but some, like the Chana Rama and our spinach and feta filo pies, are inspired by cuisines from further afield.

Our Big Cheese pie, also available gluten free, is racing up the charts, and Beer & Deer, made with wild British venison and local Milk Stout from Wiper and True, is another current favourite.

What makes a proper pie?

We don’t compromise on anything. A premium pie needs to be premium through and through.

What sets Pieminister apart from other pie brands?

From our ethical and sustainable credentials to the many awards we’ve won over the years for taste and quality, we think we’ve proven that good food and doing good can go hand in hand.

And we’ve done it as an independent family business from Bristol, building everything from scratch.

What’s the ultimate way to enjoy a Pieminister pie?

For us, it has to be The Mothership.

We created it at Glastonbury back in 2004, so it stirs up a lot of happy memories. It’s any pie piled high with mash, mushy peas, gravy, cheddar cheese crumb and crispy onions.

It’s become legendary among our fans. Given its iconic status in our restaurants and at festivals, we like to think it’s the world’s ultimate pie feast.

This pie week, from 2nd to 8th of March, we’re launching the Mega Mothership in our restaurants. It’s double the size, made for sharing, and we’re even baking double-sized pies especially for it.

What do you hope people feel when they sit down with one of your pies?

Because our pies are individual and available in meat, vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options, they’re perfect for gatherings where tastes and dietary needs vary.

Eating together is one of life’s greatest pleasures, so we hope people associate our pies with wonderful times with friends and family, whether at home, in one of our restaurants or in a festival field!