New Ukraine-themed pie a show of support on British Pie Week

Mad O'Rourkes Pie Factory in Tipton has gained a reputation for creating unusual themed pies over the years, and the popular pub and restaurant has created a special Ukrainian-themed pie to raise funds for charities helping people caught in the conflict.

The Chicken Kyiv pie takes the popular chicken dish with garlic butter inside and recreates it in a pie, with owner Pete Towler explaining how the pie came about.

He said: "I spoke to our head chef and he came up with a really great concept for it, because people know what a Chicken Kyiv is and we wanted to do something that people would recognise and link with Ukraine.

"He took chicken and put it with a rich and creamy buttery garlic sauce and, instead of pastry on top, covered it with a breadcrumb topping instead."

Mr Towler said the pie was a great way of celebrating British Pie Week and help raise funds for people in Ukraine, saying that £5 of every Chicken Kyiv pie sold would be donated to the Red Cross.

He said: "Being able to do this means everything as when I look at the news, it almost brings tears to my eyes as you wonder how awful it must be for those poor people.

"We're all sat here in the UK reasonably comfortable, having got through the worst of Covid, then this comes along and it's like going from one disaster to another, so this is just our little way of trying to help."

Mr Towler has been described as the pie master of the Midlands and spoke about what it was that made the perfect pie for him.

He said: "It's all about the ingredients, as we make everything by hand and buy our meats from local sources.

"We make everything in-house and that's how we've done it for 30-plus years and we don't change things because we don't believe in changes and are very boring and traditional."