Paua pie turns Silverdale bakers into celebrities

Ketaka, Buntha’s wife, admits it was a decision made four days out from judging day for the 2025 Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Awards, and it was loaded with risk.

The plan: to make a stunning creamy paua pie for the Gourmet Meat category in the Pie Awards. The risk: that they couldn’t pull-off the flavour to win over the judges; that if they won the Supreme Award they might not be able to keep up with demand; and would a paua pie sell? “Not everyone likes seafood,” says Ketaka.

The risk paid off. They won the Gourmet Meat category gold and have seen strong and continuous sales boost, and at the same time, it’s turned them into baking celebrities as word went global of their win and people flocked to Wild Grain Bakery to taste their pie, photograph them and even make reels to post on social media.

Ketaka says: “This holiday season before Christmas and during New Year’s holiday lots of people have come to the shop and taken videos and pictures. Some people say, ‘I came from Canada’, and I was so, so happy and we sold paua pies to them and they took a photo of each of them in front of the pie warmer and they made a short video and said it was going to be on their social media. Then the next day some people from England came in and the man said, ‘I got the list (of winners) from my friend and he had told me to see you.”

Other people came from Australia and from all around New Zealand, some on holiday road trips, others tourists, many wanting to take photos of the paua pie and the champion baker and his wife.

“We have been so busy we have been running in the shop to keep up.
“First when the win was announced a lot of people came into the shop but they didn’t know what pie had won, just, ‘oh I heard that you had won something’. And I said, yes I had won with the paua pie, and some go, ‘oh I’m not a seafood fan. I’ll go for my steak and cheese’. A lot of people come and some are fans of seafood and some are not, still the business boomed. It’s good,” says Ketaka, and she and Buntha want to thank everyone who has supported their bakery and helped celebrate their gold award.

“We had the previous Pie Awards chief judge, Tim Aspinall come to the shop and I was so surprised. I told him I win for my best paua pie and he said, ‘what!?’ He didn’t know. He tried our paua pie and he really liked it. He said the filling was well balanced with good texture and flavour. He wanted to take some for his wife too but he was on the big bike and it was hot that day and he couldn’t put it in his bag, so he will bring his wife another time.”

Ketaka says their original focus, when preparing for the competition, was to enter pies that were already selling well having previously claimed awards, such as their potato top, chicken and vegetable, mince and cheese etc and to perfect them to Supreme-winning level.
And then she spotted some minced paua at her wholesaler… For Buntha it meant hours and hours of making caramelised onion and developing the butter and cream-rich recipe.

When the ‘gold’ call came through on Friday morning after judging day, they couldn’t believe their luck. They had won a gold award, though they had no idea it was the creamy paua pie until the Gourmet Meat award was announced on Awards Night.
“When I got the call about the gold win I started to shake, and then, what if we win the Supreme one!”

There was no need for panic. The paua supply has held up and seafood fans love the taste. Sales are strong across everything they make and now Buntha, a big fan of baking competitions, is thinking of the 2026 Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Awards and considering just tweaking one of their already popular pie flavours just in case ….
We shall see.

“We’d like to thank NZ Bakels and everyone involved with this competition. I just want to thank each and every one of them that helps us a lot through the business. Winning, a lot of people recognise us and take photos and post on social media, and I’m so happy that this happens all because of the competition.”

If you want to find the best creamy paua pie in New Zealand it’s at Wild Grain Bakery Silverdale, 16 Wainui Rd, Silverdale in Auckland.