A cook from St Cleer was one of the champions crowned when pasty makers from across the globe defied a week of extreme weather to descend on Cornwall’s Eden Project on Saturday for the seventh annual World Pasty Championships.

More than 200 pasties were entered into the competition, the highest number in the history of this celebration. The event was the finale of the first-ever Cornish Pasty Week. 

Among the big winners was the Pure Pasty Co., based in Vienna, Virginia in the Washington DC suburbs, who were victorious in the Open Savoury Company category with a barbecue chicken pasty made with sweet potato, zucchini, red pepper, corn and pineapple.

Boss Mike “the Pasty” Burgess attended the championships for the second year running, this time accompanied by his bakery manager Jennifer Swanston, who is originally from New York City.

Mike and Jennifer were one of a number of contestants from North America, a contingent that also included 2017 Cornish Pasty Professional winner Gerry Ramier, from  St Catherine’s in Ontario, Canada,  and 2016 Pasty Ambassador Matt Grant, from Ottawa, Canada, who travelled with his Canadian colleague Lauren Trick.

A group of pasty enthusiasts from Bristol who have entered the competition every year it has been running were awarded the prestigious Pasty Ambassador award. This was the first time the award has been given to a group rather than an individual.

This year, the group was smaller than usual due to the poor weather in the run up to the competition.

Gillian Francis from St Cleer, won the coveted Cornish Pasty Amateur category and came third in the Open Savoury Amateur category despite only learning to crimp two weeks ago.

The mum-of-three, who is a teaching assistant at St Cleer Primary School, said: ‘I’ve been testing out my pasties on my three sons for years but didn’t know how to crimp properly so I had to ask my next-door neighbour to teach me a few weeks ago.

‘This is the first time I’ve entered the World Pasty Championships and I’m absolutely overwhelmed and shocked to win. I thought my boys were playing a joke on me!’

Eden Project spokesman David Rowe said: ‘There was a great spirit today at our seventh World Pasty Championships. The pasty bakers made heroic efforts to be here despite everything the weather could throw at them this week.

‘Huge thanks to our friends from the Cornish Pasty Association for helping us deliver the event as fitting end of the first-ever Cornish Pasty Week.’

As well as the pasty competition, Eden put on a day’s entertainment in the stage area. Britpop legends Dodgy, Cornwall-based 3 Daft Monkeys and Redruth rappers Hedluv + Passman headed the music bill.

Eden partners with industry body the Cornish Pasty Association (CPA) to deliver the Championships.