Corniche Pastie takes top prize at food fair

ABU DHABI: Pastry-based perfection was rewarded at yesterday’s Olde Emirati Food Fayre, with Abu Dhabi baker Mohammad Penforth-Jones scooping the top prize for his Corniche Pasties. Penforth-Jones, 89, fought off stiff competition from the likes of Sharjah Stilton, Ajman Camel Jerky, and the disqualified Ras-Al PorkPiemah, to lift the trophy for the third year running.

“The exact recipe to our pasties is a closely guarded secret,” said a visibly emotional Penforth-Jones, standing atop the event’s famous cheese-wedge plinth. “However, I can assure you that they’ve been handcrafted in the same way by master bakers of the Abu Dhabi Corniche – for almost five years.”

Corniche Pasties recently hit the headlines after a ruling by the Gulf Pies and Pastries Associate last week to award the tasty snacks Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status, meaning that only pasties prepared and cooked by a corniche could by sold as Corniche Pasties. The move, which will be enforced from 2012, spelled instant disaster for traders such as Bakr’s Bakers, who has been preparing corniche-style pasties from a stall located over 100 metres from the Doha Corniche.