As part of the Modern Cockney Festival we are launching the first-ever National Pie’n’Mash Week (March 11th- 17th).
Campaigners are aiming to expand national and international status and sales for a dish whose celebrity fans include David Beckham, Danny Dyer, Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris, comedian Arthur Smith, and actress Emma Cooke and is also featured in BBC TV’s ‘East Enders’ with the ‘Beale’s Eels’ Pie & Mash House.
The traditional Pie’n’Mash dish consists of a savoury pie filled with minced beef, mashed potatoes, served with a parsley liquor, which can also be accompanied by stewed jellied eels.
Although each pie shop has their own recipes and traditions in making their pies, mash, and liquor, the protected status will mark the geographical connection, using traditional methods. The purpose of the law is to protect the reputation of British regional foods.
A network of typically family-owned pie’n’mash shops has spread out from its inner London heartlands in the East End and South London across the South-East, in a region dubbed ‘Cockneydom’ – defined as having a local pie’n’mash shop -from Bishops Stortford in the North to Brighton in the South, and to the East coast with outposts as far North as Whitby.
As campaign supporter Terry Carney, who runs the Pie & Mash Appreciation Society on Facebook says,“If the Cornish can protect their pasties, and the Cumberlanders their sausages, why not the Cockneys with our Pie’n’Mash?”
If you feel the same, we would love for you to sign our petition which can be found here: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/give-us-respect-for-pie-n-mash
“Pie’n’mash is more than something to eat when you’re Hank Marvin. It has a special place in Cockney culture and that’s why it needs protected status. We invite pie’n’mash fans to support the campaign to get Protected Regional Status, while also inviting ‘pie’n’mash virgins’, who’ve not tasted our wonderful grub, to give it a go during our national week of celebrations.”
National Pie’n’Mash Week features a range of events including live music, poetry, literature, history, and even turning a shop into an art gallery. For further details of the campaign and National Pie’n’Mash Week visit www.nationalpiemashweek.org.uk