His bakery wall in Tauranga is lined with 56 awards for outstanding pies, having consistently beaten out the competition.

It's fair to say, Bethlehem's Patrick Lam, a five-time Bakels Supreme Pie Award winner, is a pastry pro and perhaps the country's best ever pie maker.

Patrick Lam is best known for his creamy bacon, mushroom and cheese pie. Photo: Phil Doyle.

So Stuff jumped at the chance to get in the kitchen with the master of New Zealand's number one comfort food.

The prestigious pie awards - announced at a ceremony in Auckland each July - are judged on tops, bases, filling and their baking properties like glaze, evenness of bake and visual appeal.

Patrick says, like any good house, a proper pie is built on a solid foundation - pastry.

The winning bacon and egg pie from Patrick's Pie Group Gold Star Bakery. Supplied.

"Everybody can make pie, but to make a good pie is very hard."

Here are Patrick Lam's top five secrets to a perfect pie:

1. Pastry

It's what makes a pie, the casing in which it is built, and it's full of variables that have to be considered.

"The whole process is so important when you do the pie," Patrick says.

One of the most important facets of the pastry-making is taking your time, leaving 30 minutes between each fold of the layer. Lam's pies can end up with about more than 200 layers.

Those folds are called Scottish, English or French and all three play a role in how the pies comes out, with different techniques as to how butter is folded into the flour to make it puff up into the perfect crunch.

2. Tools

The idea that a workman should never blame his tools is valid when baking a pie. You need to make sure the oven temperature is perfect too, for obvious reasons. The pie needs integrity, but also needs to be chewable.

A good mixer and an oven that provides a consistent heat should do the trick.

Patrick also uses a "dough sheeter", which rolls the dough out into long sheets, further rolling it up.

3. Weather

It may or may not come as a surprise, but the weather is going to play a part in your quest for pie perfection.

Measurements have to be tailored - if it's hot, you have to work fast, or make sure your butter is extra cold. If the butter melts the pastry will become loose and weak.

4. Know your pie

Bacon and egg pie, the variety which saw Patrick take home this year's top gong, is a very different beast to the classic steak and cheese.

The popular breakfast pie, he says, is technically difficult.

The mixture tightens during the cook while other pies of the meat and gravy variety are a little more straight forward.

5. Keep experimenting

Despite having a winning formula, Patrick continues to look at different recipes to enter into the annual competition.

Despite that, his customers always encourage him to submit his twice-winning creamy bacon, mushroom and cheese pie, he says.

"All the judges know my flavour now."

- Stuff