Technical Glitch Leads To Wrong Baker Winning

In an Avondale bakery there’s a very dedicated young baker who has set his sights on a Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Awards Gold award, and ultimately, the Supreme award in time.

This year a glitch in the IT system during the Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Awards judging day recognised his Bacon & Egg category pie as worthy of that gold award but then recorded it as baked by someone else. It wasn’t until the baker spotted his pie in the gold award photos that he realised something had gone wrong.

His name is Sok Heang Nguon of Taste Café and Bakery and in 2021 (the last time the Pie Awards were held) he won two Bronze awards for his Mince & Gravy and his Mince & Cheese categories as well as a Highly Commended for his Vegetarian entry. He was thrilled and it motivated him to keep trying for that Gold award.

Sok says he was thrilled and excited to win the Gold award. “I have won 10 awards since 2019, including some top four in the top 10 of the Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Awards, one in the Apprentice Pie Maker Awards and one from the Vegan Society.

“All the awards are not only for Taste Café. It's for all of the Avondale community. One for all and all for one."

NZ Bakels managing director Brent Kersel says: “As soon as Sok contacted us the alarm bells went off. These bakers work incredibly hard to win an award and we needed to sort this out for him promptly. “The pies are all given an entry number on arrival for judging to ensure that the baker can’t be identified during the blind judging. After they have been judged, the points they have been awarded are tallied up, and the top four pies are matched with the name of the baker who made them. Then the Gold award winning pie goes onto the Supreme judging stage. Sok’s pie went onto the Supreme judging stage but somehow in the system the wrong name was matched up with his bacon and egg pie.

“We have now awarded Sok his gold award in the Bacon & Egg category and we hope that pie lovers everywhere will flock to Taste Café and Bakery in Avondale and buy one of his pies in recognition of his fantastic achievement. And as for us at NZ Bakels, it’s time to calibrate our system to prevent this happening again. It was a first in our 25 years and we certainly don’t want it to happen again. ”

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