Why do Cambodian bakers make the best pies in New Zealand?

From New Zealand pie making legend Patrick Lam to emerging award winners, Cambodian bakers dominate the domestic pastry scene.

This year, Cambodian bakers won seven out of the 11 categories in the prestigious Bakels Supreme Pie Awards, with steak and gravy, steak and cheese, chicken and vegetable, mince and gravy, potato top, vegetarian and gourmet meat pies.

The 2025 supreme award was won by Samraksmey (Sam) So, owner of Rosedale Bakery & Café in Albany, for his fancy French-inspired potato top pie.

Over the last decade, a Cambodian baker has won the best pie prize, the Bakels supreme award, seven times. The first female winner is also a Cambodian – Sopheap Long won for her steak and cheese pie in 2021.

Apart from those at the top, it’s hard to ignore the many Cambodian names in the full pie awards lists every year, as well as those joining other baking competitions.

The bakers themselves believe their country of origin has made them resilient and hard-working. Cambodia's French colonial history has also given them palates sensitive to pastry. Support from within their community has also been key.

It is not uncommon for someone to work in a bakery run by a family member or a friend when they first arrive in New Zealand and pick up baking – that's how eight-time supreme winner Patrick Lam got a break.

Lam, who runs bustling bakeries in Tauranga and Rotorua, left Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime and went through “a very difficult and traumatic time”.

After staying at a Vietnamese refugee camp then living in Australia for some years, Lam and his family finally settled in New Zealand in 1997 where he learnt baking from his brother-in-law and started his business the same year.

He says Cambodian bakers are often “very hard-working” and “take a lot of pride” in what they do.

“Many of us have come from backgrounds where resilience and resourcefulness were essential, and I think that carries over into our work,” Lam says.

This year’s supreme winner, Auckland’s Samraksmey So, is among those who have thrived after mastering baking techniques at a relative’s bakery.

He picked up his skills from his prized pie making brother-in-law, Bunnarith Sao. This year So’s potato top pie outshone that of Sao's to take out the gold award.

So says many new migrants follow the footsteps of those who have established their business and life here, which explains why there’s an increasing number of Cambodian-owned bakeries in New Zealand.

“I think my people work hard,” says So, who needs a pillow for his legs when he sleeps at night after standing for long hours in the kitchen.

He says sharing ideas with family like Sao, as well as diligent research and testing on his own, helps improve the quality of his baking.

“Everything I do is by my heart and about love,” he says. “I want everyone in New Zealand [to] know about me and about my brand, and the shop [to have good food and good pies.”

After receiving a 'highly commended' in the 2024 awards, So spent a year relentlessly studying every detail to perfect his 2025 entry. He worked with a chef from a five-star hotel to get it right, and worked past midnight cranking out test pies before finally nailing his swirled potato top pie with a centre of fondant style cooked potatoes finished in au gratin layers.

Another apprentice of 52-year-old Sao, Sok Keo from Milldale Bakery in Wainui, north of Auckland, also won gold this year for his steak and cheese creation.

Sao has been running his bakery in New Zealand for 21 years and has bagged plenty of prizes himself.

Sao says many Cambodians come to New Zealand for a better life, and are prepared to work hard.

“[Baking was] the last option for my life,” he says, explaining it was hard for him to find a job in NZ so he had to learn baking from a friend to make a living.

“Sometimes [we must] force ourselves to do the job. We can't choose it.”

The exposure to European tastes during French colonisation has helped Cambodians develop an instinct for good baking, Sao says.

“The Cambodian people, [our] tongue...I know [our] brain and [our] tongue know that flavour.”

The very first female baker to win the supreme pie awards, Sopheap Long, also acknowledges the French influence.

“I’ve never seen a pie in Cambodia till I came to New Zealand,” she says, “but the cake, the artisan bread, they’re seen in Cambodia because [there are] a lot of French bakeries over there.”

She still remembers being “over the moon” with her victory in 2021 – becoming the first woman to win in the award’s quarter century history.

It took lots of research and experimenting to successfully nail the perfect pastry, filling and at just the right temperature.

“If you're talking about pies now and the pie like 20 years ago, it's really different,” Long says.

“The classic ones are still popular like steak and cheese, mince and cheese, potato top pie or mince pie... but nowadays the pie is different because people are looking for something different.”

When Long dines out she often considers if the meal she orders could be put into a pie, such as beef stroganoff.

“[There are] very modern, very fancy pie right now,” she says.

“It's not like 25 years ago when I first came in New Zealand. So yeah, [I’ll] keep learning.”

She says she often talks about pies with her Cambodian baker friends.

“[We] just learn from each other. [We] look up to each other and inspiring each other to do better and better.”