Inverloch officially has Australia’s best gourmet sausage roll

Inverloch’s Paul the Pieman has officially produced Australia’s best gourmet sausage roll.

Its jalapeño beef and cheese sausage roll claimed the major title at the 37th Official Great Aussie Pie Competition, held at Fine Food Australia in Melbourne from August 31 to September 3.

Despite being no stranger to winning awards, this was the bakery’s first win in one of the competition’s five major categories.

Safe to say the win came as a surprise for production manager Mitchell Woods, who was at the event but, believing the bakery was unlikely to win one of the major awards, left shortly before the presentation.

“We weren’t really expecting to win something like that, so it caught us very off guard,” Mr Woods said.

“They had a livestream of the presentations, and they read our name out. We just sat there and couldn’t believe it.

“My phone was going crazy. They were trying to find me at the show, but we’d already left.”

Bakery owners and Mr Woods’ parents, Paul and Robyn Woods, were in Port Douglas and watched the presentation live as calls began coming in from friends.

The five major awards recognise the country’s best plain pie, plain sausage roll, pastie, gourmet pie and gourmet sausage roll.

While Paul the Pieman has collected a plethora of medals and awards over the years, including Best Pork Pie and the Tom Lindsay Pepper Steak Pie Award in 2023, this was its first win in one of the five headline categories.

“It’s pretty surreal. It’s a pretty proud moment,” Mr Woods said.

“Our family’s been here in Inverloch since 2002, trying to keep Inverloch as a staple and somewhere for people to come to.

“We can lay claim now that we have the best gourmet sausage roll in Australia.”

The winning sausage roll was inspired by the flavours of a jalapeño popper and contains jalapeño, bacon and cheese.

Mr Woods said it had been sold at the bakery for about four or five years, but its recipe had continued to change over the course of that time.

“A few of my friends were spitballing ideas and everyone wanted to do a chilli cheese sort of thing,” he said.

“Then we thought we would do something a bit different, and that’s where we went with jalapeño poppers.

“We’ve played with that idea for the last four or five years and tinkered with it a little bit.”

Paul the Pieman works with the butcher next door to source the sausage meat and seasoning before adding its own ingredients.

But the filling is only part of the equation.

Mr Woods said careful pastry preparation like strong lamination and a good puff was crucial when producing a competition-quality sausage roll.

“We try to keep it the same as what we sell in the shop,” he said.

“You jazz it up a little bit to make it a showpiece, but it comes down to the pastry.”

The iconic Inverloch bakery entered eight products in this year’s competition.

Its plain mince pie, pepper steak pie, meat pastie and jalapeño beef and cheese sausage roll received gold medals, while its mince and chunky pie, JD brisket pie, Korean BBQ pork pie and plain sausage roll secured silver medals.

Mr Woods said getting those results for the bakery’s staples was very satisfying.

“For them to be in gold tier in Australia was a really proud moment,” he said.

The 29-year-old began helping at the family business when he was just 15, and took on more responsibility for production and recipe development around 2020.

He thanked the bakery’s customers and its 28 staff for contributing to the business’ success.

“There’s no Paul the Pieman without the people who come in every day and tell us how good our jalapeño sausage roll or plain pie is,” he said.

“And a big thanks goes to our staff. It shows that everyone has a passion for what they do and for trying to put the best product out.”