PIEMAKER Alison Bradley has joined the upper crust of her profession because her pastry creations have been hailed as the best in the North-west.

In fact it was celebrations all round at Great Lever butchers Frasers when they knocked the stuffing out of the opposition during a regional food awards ceremony to pick up three awards.

Butcher Greg Hull, 41, who runs the Rishton Lane shop, pitted his best fayre against 400 entrants from across the North-west at the Excellence in Meat Technology Awards held at Haydock Park.

Alison, who is Frasers' food technician, makes the pies to Greg's very own recipe -- and what a double act they turned out to be.

They chomped their way through the competition to grab a prize for the Best Pork Pie, the Best Huntsmen Pie (a combination of pork, turkey and stuffing) and the Best Ploughman's Pie (made up of pork, pickle and cheese).

And for someone who only began making the delicacies two years ago, the accolades came as something of a surprise.

Mr Hull said: "I didn't expect to win three categories but it just shows that if you use fine ingredients you can't go wrong. Get good meat in the pies and you are 95 per cent of the way there. The rest of the flavour is added by the pastry and we have got that down to a tee as well."

Mr Hull has owned Frasers for seven years. He used to specialise in sausages for which he has also picked up an award. The Emtech Awards are said to be the North-west's most sought after accolades for butchers and are handed out every two years.

Mr Hull said a special mention had to go to Alison. He said: "She worked out a brilliant recipe so much of the credit must go to her."

While Alison herself said she was pleased that everyone at Frasers had been recognised for their hard work.