‘Piemonger’ From Liverpool Sells Tasty British Pies In S’pore, Has Ginger Pork Belly & Rendang Flavours
Almost needless to say, he’s a Liverpool FC fan. “Although half my family [support rival] Everton, poor things,” he jests.
After shifting here with his partner for her fintech job, Neil “heard from many people” that it was harder to find a decent pie in Singapore. A chef by profession for 30 years, he decided to set up his own “little pie business”, a stall called The Pie Monger at Claymore Connect to offer his handmade British pies.
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The Pie Monger
Neil’s stall is located within lifestyle brand Crane’s dine-in cafe and co-working space in the mall. He makes his pies in-house in an attached kitchen.
“I have always been interested in food since I was a kid and started cooking with my Moma, Ninny (Liverpool slang for ‘mum’ and ‘grandma’) and Aunty Eve. My mum was an okay cook — she did the basic things, but I would always look in the cupboards or ‘Neilify’ dishes by adding a twist,” he shares.
Moved to Hong Kong
Young Neil would grow up to be a chef, and later moved to Hong Kong in 1994 to hone his culinary skills. “I had some friends there, and I wanted to learn how to cook. Cooking is almost like a meritocracy. You don’t need to have any fancy degrees to do really well, and it’s a really nice thing when you bring people together and feed them,” he says.
His first proper cheffing job in Hong Kong was peeling tomatoes at the iconic Central fine-diner M at the Fringe. He went on to work as the executive chef at gourmet burger chain Beef & Liberty, and as head chef at fashion label Alfred Dunhill’s defunct restaurant Alfie’s by Kee. “It was a good experience. Hong Kong is a very dynamic city, especially back in 1994,” he recalls.
Other than working in Hong Kong, Neil also went on to open his own fusion restaurants in Shanghai and The Caribbean. It was his years of working in Asia that led Neil to include Asian ingredients in his British pies, which he says are not “the classic pastries”.
He explains: “Instead of using table salt for my Western pies, I would use fish sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce and miso paste. My minced beef pie has soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce in it. It gives it an umami, really nice intense flavour.”
What makes a good British pie?
According to Neil, “there’s got to be a good percentage of butter” in a good pie. He uses 500g of New Zealand butter for every kilogram of flour. Each of his pies is around 11cm wide and weighs 280g, slightly bigger than palm-sized but hearty enough to make a light meal for one pax.
“A good pastry has to be robust enough to hold the filling without breaking, but when you bake it it has to start becoming layered and flaky,” he shares. “The balance is having it robust enough and also having it flaky enough to get a nice texture. I grate the butter and shave it into the flour in layers so the pastry gets very crispy.”
Another hallmark of a good pie, he says, is the filling. “When I buy pies from other people, over half of the weight of the pie is pastry. For my pies, the weight of the pastry is only two-fifth, and the other three-fifth is meat. There’s a lot of good stuff in that pie,” he says.
The menu
Currently, Neil sells about 30 to 50 pies a day, which is also the quantity he makes. “I have five to six flavours a day, but people can WhatsApp me to make more,” he says. “I have Indian, Japanese influences. I also do laksa and rendang pies. I travel so much and enjoy different cuisines.”
During our visit, he was offering a Beef Wellington Pie, Tandoori Butter Chicken Pie, Apple Pie and Sausage Roll. Neil makes some of the pies at the little kitchen attached to his shop, and at Crane’s Joo Chiat outlet. “I may be moving to Joo Chiat full-time, I haven’t signed the contract yet,” he shares. Neil’s ultimate plan is to open his own “hole-in-the-wall shop, where I can sell local flavour pies.”
He explains: “If customers WhatsApp me, I do free delivery for a minimum order of four pies and special orders that I don’t do on the website.” Advance notice of at least two days is recommended.
For Christmas, he is making a galette des rois with cherries and almonds — a traditional festive pie baked with a hidden charm that allows the finder to wear an accompanying paper crown and be a ‘king’ for the day.
Over 40 pie flavours
Neil also shows us a PDF menu that he had created to showcase the over 40 pie flavours he makes. This includes the classics like a Beef Steak & Guinness Pie, Aussie Beef Mince & Cheddar Pie and Four Cheese Pie, as well as fusion flavours such as Duck Confit, Yuzu & Kumquat Pie, Braised Ginger Pork Belly Pie, Beef Steak Rendang Pie and Lamb Masala Pie.
“I grew up with minced beef and onion pies, sausage rolls, cheese pasties, steak and kidney pies,” he says. While he can make a classic steak and kidney pie upon request, Neil says it’s much less popular here. “It’s one of the nicest pies, it has got a lovely flavour,” he shares.
Tandoori butter chicken, another popular dish in the UK, is also offered as a pie flavour. According to Neil, “it’s not too spicy, and I have not seen that many tandoori pies in the UK. But I have not been back for 30 years though!”
He makes pork and beef sausage rolls too, available in vegetarian-friendly options with Impossible meat. “I do canapé, individual, family and super family sizes too,” shares Neil.
Pie birthday cake
If you really like pies, you can order it as a birthday ‘cake’. The Big Bad Birthday Tower (pictured above, $75) has three tiers surrounded by sausage rolls. You can choose the sausage roll flavour and any two pie flavours for the bottom two tiers (the last tier is mashed potatoes piped into a butter pastry ‘bowl’).
Other than savoury pies, Neil also sells “sweet things” like an old-school Apple & Berry Pie, Banoffee Pie as well as the uncommon Eccles Cake, a traditional flaky pastry from Lancashire that resembles the Chinese heong piah, except it’s stuffed with a mix of spiced currants, dried cherries and brown sugar.
How to enjoy pies the British way
We recommend dining in for these pies. Neil passes us a quaint pot filled with bottles of good sauces — Lingham’s sriracha chilli sauce, the classic British HP brown sauce, tamarind chutney and Heinz’s ketchup — to add to the pies. “That’s how we eat it in the UK,” he explains.
Cheeky Wellington, $15 (8 Days Pick!)
This is Neil’s take on the family-sized beef wellington pie, which he describes as a “cheeky take on a classic”. Instead of baking pastry-wrapped beef fillet sliced to serve, he stuffs an individual portion pie with slow-braised beef cheek in a mushroom cream reduction sauce.
For dine-in, he plates it very poshly with a dollop of creamy mashed potatoes in brown gravy, ketchup and — unusually enough — crunchy achar. The ‘Neilified’ combination works very well, though. While we find the flaky puff pastry a bit dry during our visit, the rich, succulent beef filling more than makes up for it.
Perking up the beefiness is the bright, piquant achar. The crunchy tangy pickles and accompanying ketchup cut through the meaty flavour and whets our appetite, making this a moreish meal compared to eating just a plain beef pie. Lovely.
Tandoori Butter Chicken Pie, $12.50
For a feistier option, there is the Tandoori Butter Chicken pie. The same New Zealand butter pie shell is loaded with tender, butter chicken thigh chunks cooked in a mildly spicy masala sauce spiked with onions, ginger and tomatoes. This is also served with achar, and a vibrant house-made green raita sauce. We find this less hearty than the Cheeky Wellington pie, but it’s nice in its own way.
Sausage Roll, $2
The quintessential sausage roll — this one’s stuffed with juicy minced beef in a hard pastry case. A tad tough to chew; we suggest going for the puff pastry pies instead.
Apple Pie, $11 (8 Days Pick!)
Get this delightful old-school Apple Pie for dessert. Neil sprinkles it with confectioners’ sugar to serve, plus a scoop of vanilla ice cream. We dig into our apple pie to find a fragrant, gooey diced apple filling that’s not too sweet, but makes a satisfying treat with the velvety, slowly-melting ice cream.
The Pie Monger is at Crane @ Claymore Connect, #01-11 Claymore Connect, 442 Orchard Rd, S238879. For preorders, WhatsApp Neil Tomes at 9343-4409 or e-mail order [at] thepiemonger.com. For online orders, go to www.thepiemonger.com.
Photos: Aik Chen
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