Champion baker target of pie spies

AUCHTERARDER, Scotland, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Scotland's reigning champion pie baker says his rivals are sending spies to try and steal his recipes and techniques.

Allan Devlin owns Sugar and Spice, a bakery in Auchterarder, a picturesque and historic village an hour northwest of Edinburgh. He told the Glasgow Daily Record that spies are now in his shop almost every day as the next competition approaches.

"We have had people in from Perth, Stirling, Falkirk and beyond," Devlin said. "Most have traveled some distance specifically to check out the opposition. You can tell right away what they are up to. They are quite up front about it."

Devlin, in fact, tells relatives and friends visiting other areas to bring back a few pies for him to study.

Seventeen pie experts will pick the new champion or re-crown the old one next month in Dunfermline.

Devlin says his pie recipe is based on secret ingredients and he is very proud that only four years after he opened his bakery, he defeated rivals who had been born into the business.