Aussie Pies

rP

os

t

TB0099

September 27, 2006

Graeme Rankine

Aussie Pies (A)

op

yo

“Wow, Australians really love their meat pies,” Anna Amphlett said to Andrew Ferris as they sat at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground watching the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final between the

Sydney Swans and the West Coast Eagles. “I’ve seen people eat three meat pies straight, then wash them

down with a full liter of Fosters Lager,” she said as she looked across to see Sydney win the 2005

Premiership with a score of 58-54. According to observers, “Sydney has ended the longest premiership

drought in AFL history in the most emotional and heart-stopping fashion imaginable by beating the

West Coast Eagles by four points in the most exciting and closest grand final for nearly 40 years.”1 “But

it’s not just at footy matches,” Ferris noted, “they eat them all the time, just like we eat hamburgers and

hotdogs back in the States.” Ferris thought about the number of pies eaten by the 100,000 people

attending the AFL Grand Final. Amphlett and Ferris lived in Seattle, Washington, but were on a vacation to Australia to visit the Great Barrier Reef and attend the Grand Final in Melbourne. “I wonder if

Americans might develop a following for the Aussie meat pie,” he said to Anna… “perhaps there’s a

business opportunity back home.”

Australian Meat Pies

tC

The meat pie, a hand-sized pot pie made with pastry and filled with minced (ground) beef and gravy, is

consumed as a takeaway food snack in Australia (see Exhibit 1 for an illustration of a meat pie). According to some observers, it is iconic in Australian culture and has been described by former New South

Wales Premier Bob Carr as Australia’s “national dish.”2 The average Australian will consume an average

of 45 meat pies per year, and the popular brand Four’N Twenty Pie produces 50,000 pies per hour. The

meat pie is heavily associated with Australian Rules football, rugby league, and other sports as one of...