Tourism Midwest Victoria is proud to announce the winners of the People’s Choice Pie in the blockbuster 2025 edition of Ballarat’s Best Pie.
In third place is Emma’s Bakery with its Tram Car pulled beef pie, which featured local winery Michael Unwin Wines’ Tram Car Shiraz along with pulled beef, caramelised leek and onion, fresh rosemary and bay leaf. Following the success of its pie, the neighbourhood bakery is keeping it in its daily line-up and submitting the pie for an upcoming national award.
In second place – with the people agreeing with the decision of our esteemed judges –is Lydiard General, whose peach & Portuguese custard pie was a slice of nostalgia with warm custard and poached peaches enveloped by sweet and buttery shortcrust pastry and finished with a light dusting of icing sugar.
And last, but certainly not least, the People’s Choice Pie for 2025 is….
Mrs Browne Bakes’ raspberry goldfields cookie pie, which was a twice-daily sell-out at Ballarat cafe Naomi & i. This award gives Erika Browne – the brains behind the brilliantly unexpected pie – the 2025 trifecta of Ballarat’s Best Pie Grand Prize, Best Sweet Pie and, now, the People’s Choice Pie.
And it’s no wonder, with people queueing in the street each day in a bid to get their hands on the mouth-watering creation! Will Erika’s beloved cookie pie live on? Only time will tell!
The 2025 edition of Ballarat’s Best Pie has been a huge success. 36 venues created 31 savoury and 5 sweet offerings, with more than 15,000 pies sold. Many venues recorded sell-out days and this feat was not just limited to the award winners.
Young and old came from far and wide to try a pie – or, in one case, all 36 – and thousands voted for the People’s Choice Pie, with half of the top ten being non-award winners.
Quote attributable to Cr Tracey Hargreaves, City of Ballarat Mayor
“Ballarat is proud to be home to such an imaginative and ever-evolving food scene. Competitions like this are not only a great way to support our hospitality businesses but they also invite people from across Victoria to explore what makes our city so special.”
Quote attributable to Tim Bone – local foodie hero, owner of Tim’s Toasties, co-host of Channel 10’s Good Chef Bad Chef, former MasterChef Australia semi-finalist and one of the 2025 Ballarat’s Best Pie judges
“The Ballarat’s Best Pie competition and the calibre of pies entered was taken to a whole other level in 2025. It was an absolute honour to be a judge again. This was my third year in a row. It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it!
“It’s a great campaign to not only encourage Ballarat locals to get out and about in winter but to also inspire visitors to come to town. It’s drawn so much attention to our beautiful city and anything we can do to help support our local hospitality industry is so important.
“A big shout out to Tourism Midwest Victoria and the City of Ballarat for the initiative. Vendors, cafe owners, bakers and restaurants have really embraced the competition this year. And the fact over 15,000 pies were sold is just unbelievable.
I can’t wait to see what happens next year. Who knows how big it can get!”
People’s Choice Pie images available here.
Ballarat’s Best Pie is a signature winter initiative of Tourism Midwest Victoria, which is supported by the City of Ballarat. It is intended to drive visitation to the Ballarat region by shining a light on the region’s talented producers, chefs and local businesses.
Media enquiries:
hello@tourismmidwestvic.com.au
Tourism Midwest Victoria