Apprentice Pie Maker winner motivated by hope

Srun Kéo of Patrick’s Pies Goldstar Bakery in Tauranga has won the Apprentice Pie Maker Award for 2025 and he’s now hoping that his skills as a baker will help reunite his family.

Judging for the award took place in Auckland yesterday, June 11, with 24 apprentices waiting anxiously by their phones to hear if the judges had given them the winning score.

For Srun, whose bakery trainer is none other than Patrick Lam, eight times Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Award winner, the phone remained silent!

Patrick Lam says: “It was very exciting this morning and he kept checking his phone so that Brent (Brent Kersel NZ Bakels managing director) could call but basically it was the wrong number! Brent had to ring my number to get him. When I see on the phone that Brent is ringing me I say, ‘must be the winner then’.”

Still, there is no mistaking the excitement in Srun’s voice: “I feel so happy! This is my first time at entering and I was so nervous.”

The Apprentice Pie Maker competition is judged on two categories: Mince and Cheese and Gourmet Meat.

Srun explains the way his gourmet meat pie developed: “In our bakery one flavour of the pie is garlic prawn and I like the taste of that. I thought to try another meat like chicken to go with the garlic sauce but it wasn’t good. So I was asking the boss’s opinion on what can improve the flavour and he give me a lot of opinions. Finally, because everybody liked the chicken, I put the chicken in the garlic sauce and I thought to add some vegetables, some leeks and I tasted it and it was good. I added a bit of cheese. Then I give to my boss and he said it good, really good.”

For Srun’s mince and cheese pie, he layered the cheese to give the flavour a rich mince and gravy taste blended beautifully with creamy melted cheese. His pastry had just the right level of top lift, glazing and golden colour. But it was in the Gourmet judging that his chicken with leek, garlic sauce and cheese stood out from an impressive range of internationally inspired flavours.

Patrick says on a visit back to Cambodia he met up with Srun and his family, who he knew, and he offered Srun a chance to come and work for him in New Zealand. Srun was already a baker producing cakes and bread.

“Three years ago he came to New Zealand to work for me as a baking assistant and then he thought he might go to NZ Bakels for the apprenticeship certificate (NZ Certificate in Trade Baking) because it would be a good thing for him. He joined last year to be an apprentice,” says Patrick.

The prospect of working and living in New Zealand was a great opportunity for Srun and his wife, who also works in Patrick’s bakery, but they felt they could make a better go of it if they left their young son in the care of their family, hoping that they could eventually get permanent residency in New Zealand and bring him to their new homeland. This award will look good in Srun’s employment records and he hopes it will go towards making his new life here complete with his son.

He would like to thank NZ Bakels for the chance to enter the Apprentice Pie Maker Awards and he can’t wait to be presented his award on July 29 at the Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Awards.