Cromwell-born Chris and Rob Sangster know a bit about pies. They’re tradies, after all, and an appreciation for a quality pie is almost a requirement of the job. Having run their own construction business for over 15 years, the two have ventured into a very different field, starting their own pie shop, Sanga’s Pies.
It was during trips to their ice hockey games with their now business partner and chef Miro Kollar, when the idea for Sanga’s Pies was born. “We got talking about pies because, you know, we’re tradesmen so we do eat a lot of pies,” says Chris. “We couldn’t find a decent pie around, so that’s where the idea came from.”
They decided to go ahead and build their own pie shop, opening Sanga’s Pies in November 2021. Despite its location in an industrial area of Cromwell, pie lovers come from near and far to sample their baked goods. Chris says: “We’ll have tradies that sometimes come in twice a day. Before Christmas, we had a book club of 70-year-old ladies. We’ll often get phone calls on the weekend from people from out of town asking if we’re open.”
Chris and Rob both developed a passion for food from an early age, often cooking for themselves when their folks were away. Kollar, originally from the Czech Republic, is a trained chef who has worked at a number of local establishments around Central Otago. “I’ve never been a big fan of fine dining. I didn’t want to cook in a Michelin- starred restaurant. I always wanted to make good, honest food with fresh ingredients,” says Kollar.
Sanga’s Pies has 10 flavours on the menu, ranging from their most popular Holy Smoke!, their take on a classic steak and cheese, to the Hey Dahl!, a vegan pie with spiced dahl curry. Each month, they come up with a new flavour and test it out with their customers.
The Holy Smoke! is made with chunky pieces of steak and house-smoked cheese to add an extra smoky flavour. The Underbelly is an Asian twist on the pork belly pie, with the meat braised in their own Sanga’s session IPA and Chinese five spice. The Morning Glory is “Kiwi breakfast jammed into a pie”, filled with bacon, cheese, Kransky sausage, tomato relish, egg and topped with a hash brown.
Some of the ideas come from childhood memories. The Duncan, lovingly named after Chris and Rob’s late father, is filled with curried sausages. The description on the menu simply reads: ‘Jan’s away, Dunc’s in the kitchen. It’s curried snag time.’ “He passed away two years ago. He was a man of curried sausages,” says Chris. “Every time the old lady would go away, it was always curried sausages. So we made a pie for Duncan – and it’s a bloody good one.”
The secret to a good pie, they say, is love, patience and quality ingredients. “Because we’re a small bakery, we’re not aiming to mass produce. We’re making it by hand,” says Kollar. Their meat is sourced from a local butcher and fruit for their sweet pies, like cherries, nectarines and apricots, come from a nearby orchard. “We support local, and we grow a lot of the produce on site ourselves,” says Chris. “We have six garden beds with chillies, tomatoes, zucchinis, rhubarb, and herbs like parsley, basil, oregano and mint.”
Tempted to make your own gourmet pies? Try our 21 best pies recipes.
