Entries are open for the 2017 NZ Bakels Supreme Pie Awards.

This year marks the 21st NZ Bakels Supreme Pie Awards, a competition launched to promote the culinary skills of bakers and lift the quality of pies, one of this country's most popular grab ‘n' go meals.

Any bakery can enter the competition with multiple flavour categories to choose from. There's even a special category, Café/Boutique, with a chance to win a gold award for cafés that use pre-prepared pastry.

'Last year a panel of 21 judges spent over 10 hours judging 5284 pies, which were blind coded in 12 categories. This year we want the Pie Awards to be its biggest yet as a celebration of the competition and to prove once and for all that Kiwis love their pies,” says NZ Bakels managing director Brent Kersel.

'We've seen many success stories as a result of winning the Supreme Award, the most notable being Patrick Lam, who took out the Supreme title again last year, his fifth in the history of the awards. It has boosted his business to where he is about to open another store. Could your pie lift your game to this level?

'Of special interest to us in 2017 is the hope that we may find a South Island winner. We know there are some champion mainland pies filled with delicious flavours that we don't see in the North Island. We need those pies in the competition, and as part of that, we'll ensure that they are delivered by our staff under tight security to our headquarters for independent judging,” says Brent.

For everything you need to know about entering the 2017 NZ Bakels Supreme Pie Awards go to Bakels Website www.nzbakels.co.nz call the dedicated 0800 Pieline 0800 743546.

Bakers have until 5pm on June 29 to enter, and then until July 27, judging day, to work on perfecting the pie, if needed.