The Pie Room: chef Calum Franklin gives savoury pies a whole new lease of life
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In modern times, British pies have had a rather fusty image. At posh restaurants serving traditional British cuisine, where the roast beef with Yorkshire pudding is carved tableside, menus list savoury dishes such as steak and kidney pie, pork pie and beef Wellington. At pubs and in the frozen food sections of supermarkets, you might find sausage rolls, shepherd’s pie and Cornish pasties, while at Christmas, mince pies are sold everywhere from bakeries to grocery shops.
Then along came Calum Franklin and savoury pies were given a whole new lease of life.
I first noticed the chef’s pies on his Instagram feed. They were gorgeous, with decorations that were complex and modern, and fillings that sounded enticing.
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In the introduction to The Pie Room (2020), Franklin, executive chef of the Holborn Dining Room, in London, writes that he started making pies by chance, when, in the deepest corners of a storeroom, he found a mysterious tin that had been tucked away and forgotten.
“At first inspection I had no idea what it was for, let alone what era it was from. It turned out to be a complex pie tin with interlocking parts and keys and it intrigued me. I took it up to the main kitchen and asked my chefs if they had ever used one before and quickly realised that I had identified a gap in our knowledge.
“With little to reference against we practised using the tin methodically, noting down steps that worked, cooking times and temperatures until finally we thought we had produced something of a high enough standard to make the menu; it took us almost a year of trials to get it right.
“That first pie was the beginning of something here, a fascination with lost skills, a revival of hand-craft and technique left behind. It reminded me of how much I enjoyed any fine pastry work when I was training; cooking that sometimes felt like small projects because of the skills and discipline needed to get the perfect results.”
Franklin’s efforts led to the opening of The Pie Room at Holborn Dining Room, which sells pies during the day, and turns into a private dining room at night.
Unlike most types of savoury cooking, pies require skill with pastry, which some cuisine chefs find too pernickety to deal with. Franklin’s pastry work is meticulous, creative and beautiful. He devotes one chapter to the tools and techniques you’ll need when making his pies, and another to doughs such as classic puff pastry, suet pastry, hot water crust, brioche dough and choux pastry.
Franklin gives his interpretations of British classics, such as beef Wellington, fish pie, beef cheek and kidney suet pudding, sausage rolls, haggis Scotch egg, keema-spiced cottage pie, and pork pie. He has also created more modern, international and vegetarian pies that include beet Wellington, hot and sour curried cod pie, cheesy dauphinoise and caramelised onion pie, Moroccan chickpea and feta pie, curried cauliflower and potato pasties, mac ‘n’ cheese pie, turkey, stuffing and cranberry pie, smoked eel, potato and parsley quiche, and panettone and gianduja pudding.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
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