"Ann Muller's pasties have made her the undisputed pasty queen"

Although born on The Lizard, Ann Muller never expected to become a Cornish pasty-maker extraordinaire. Her only previous catering experience was waitressing in a vegetarian restaurant in Notting Hill, West London, over 20 years ago, to eke out her artschool grant. "I'd never even made a pasty till about ten years ago, even though it's something which all the women in my mother's Cornish family traditionally did."

She learnt in an emergency, when she was summoned by her mother, Hettie Merrick, a professional pasty-maker, to a Breton agricultural fair, where demand was dramatically and unexpectedly outstripping supply at a stall Mrs Merrick had set up. "At the end of a day of pasty-making, I could crimp them as fast as my mother," Ann says.

Soon afterwards she began making pasties for neighbours, "who'd bring gifts of fresh fish they'd caught or vegetables they'd grown, and who treated my living room like a waiting room, sitting around gossiping over cups of tea if the pasties hadn't come out of the oven yet".

Inspired by the response, Ann and her mother started selling their wares from a stall in the nearby market town of Helston, graduating to a shop in Porthleven. But when juggling family and pasty shop became too much, Ann's husband transformed the garage of their house into a pasty kitchen, where she is able to crimp away to her heart's content.

Ann was invited to represent the best of Cornish fare with pasties, saffron buns, heavy cake and hogs pudding at the Celtic Film Festival, Bangor, North Wales. Her pasty making has been featured in Caterer & Hotelkeeper (18 April 1996), The Sunday Mirror Magazine (14 April 1996), The Times, Food Page (4 July 1993), the BBC Food Programme (Nov 1995), the BBC Food Lovers' Guide (1996-7) and the Australian Women's Weekly magazine - Handmade - (July/August edition 1998).

However the ultimate accolade must come from Ann's mother, Hettie Merrick. "I can easily recognise one of my daughter's pasties." she says, "Every mouthful is a piece of Cornwall - a dream folded in heaven."

Pasties are available anywhere in the UK by mail order
Please telephone for details (Only available 1st Nov - 31st May)

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