Those Conrans eh? All over the food world as if it was a family crusade to dominate the industry. Big Tel seems to be opening, or behind the opening, of a new restaurant every week and son Tom has now embraced the family firm totally and been instrumental in the creation of Bluebird. Sophie Conran has been peripherally involved, advising her father, working with Tom and writing about entertaining but now she too has decided to make her mark in foodland. Not as a designer or restaurant creator but as something perhaps a little more humble. A pie maker.
Although Sophie's pies are available in Selfridges, Harrods and other select shops she has no main outlet for us to meet in and so I am invited around to the flat she shares with her two small children in West London . It's a flat of three floors at the top of a tall old building and I rather regret my choice of gift to bring her. Reading that she made pies from pumpkins, I have chosen a fine specimen from my allotment - not a Halloween type but the tastier Silverskin - and carried it into town, across town, and now up what seem endless flights of stairs. It weighs a ton and Sophie seems a bit disconcerted when she opens the door to someone who looks like he may be on the verge of a heart attack.
Accepting the gift with the aplomb of someone who has mystery men present her with pumpkins every day, she admires it before admitting that she already has one just like it in her fridge. Ah well, it's the thought that counts. As I recover and she makes tea, I can take in the cosy, country style kitchen where she does her pie experimenting. There's even an Aga and my heart goes out to whoever lugged that up the stairs. You might expect a Conran to be a bit snooty, pseudy even but Sophie seems naturally cheerful and happy to chat so I dive in with an existential first question for her to field. What is a pie? After all there seems no agreement as to what it should contain or any other parameters. 'Hmm, well its anything really,' she offers helpfully. 'That's what's so lovely. I've made pies with Polenta tops and ones with filo pastry as well as ones with organic puff pastry, too. And I've put cheese in pastry and cumin seeds and I've done pies with mashed potato toppings like saffron mash and a pork and cream pie which has apple laced through the mashed potato.
She ticks them off from memory. 'Chicken, olive and preserved lemons with cumin puff pastry, Aubergine and feta in filo pastry, Spring vegetable with lemon polenta, Spicy fennel and fish with saffron mash oh and some others.' We both go rather quiet, wistfully thinking of pies. In fact I'm getting peckish and I wonder if she has any pies lying around the flat? 'I just try out ideas here,' she says firmly, squashing my hopes. 'The actual pies for sale are made in a professional kitchen south of the river.'
Ahhhh mashed potato. Not just for Shepherd's Pie and Fish pie then? 'Oh no,' she enthuses,' Everyone likes fish pie don't they and I think it has a lot to do with the mash. Maybe there's something in mash, something which triggers the endorphins and releases good feelings. It's happy food. One of my pies is a pheasant pie with parsnip mash'. Sounds lovely, so I ask what is the current choice of pies on offer?
So where do the ideas come from? 'From my head,' she says shooting me a look, which suggests I may have been accusing her of the culinary equivalent of plagiarism. 'And not all of them work,' she laughs. 'We tried making a sort of combination Christmas and Thanksgiving pie using pumpkin and cranberry and it was SO disgusting.' Testing the new recipes is a bit of a family affair. 'My brother Jasper has an office with a staff of about thirty,' she explains, 'so I take a batch of new pies in, send round an email saying "pies in kitchen" and they descend and start eating and commenting'.
Sophie, having two small children is concerned about what goes into her pies but she is no puritan. 'My pies are substantial and healthy and the pastry is designed to be eaten,' she insists. 'I try to keep the fat content low but that pastry contains butter for sure. Butter is delicious, I love it so much that when I was a small child my nickname was Dairy Queen'.
Sophie's passion for pies came to her quite simply. 'I just thought that there weren't any decent pies out there on the market. I had such good memories of pies from when I was a child. My mum, the renowned food writer Caroline, was a great cook and pies were on the menu.' But her special pies come in a very Conran stylish ceramic dish and she gets up to show me one, her words drowned out by clattering crockery. There is a nice Conran brand on the bottom of the dish and it obviously can be put to other use. 'Eat your pie in the evening and eat your cereals out of it the next morning,' she laughs.
The pies are chilled not frozen and ready to cook 'although you can freeze them on the day you buy them' she points out. Available in Harrods, Harvey Nics and Selfridges and now also via the web at The Food Ferry http://www.foodferry.co.uk.
You can also find out more about Sophie Conran's pies at her web site www.sophieconran.com
