TWO HUNDRED YEARS IN THE BAKING

With a heritage of six generations of Russian baking knowledge, Leeza Murina created the Russian Food Company specialising in award winning 21st century Russian piroshki pies, writes Gail Bailey

Leeza Murina, who recently attended the Clitheroe Food Festival, creates a mouth-watering selection of specialist pies, each one hand-crafted to suit the tastes of today’s healthy eaters.

Leeza of the Russian Food Company, explains: “The history of my enterprise goes back to my family’s business which started in the 1800s in St. Petersburg, Russia. I have revived six generations of old-fashioned baking knowledge.”

Piroshki (small pie) are Russian pies originating in the 1700s when they were made for miners by their wives, with a unique hand decoration as a special reminder of their love as the men worked dangerously below ground.

Leeza tells how her own family’s baking tradition has been passed down to her: “It was my grandfather who taught me how to bake my first piroshki. I was eight years old. He used one of the family recipes from the 1800s.”

“I also remember my grandmother baking at home. Although she had a busy career as a choirmaster and conductor, she was always baking when I was young. In fact, one of my best-selling dishes today is called ‘babooshka’ (grandmother) in honour of her – as this is her original recipe. It’s a sweet short crust pastry with a filling of lingonberries, raspberries and walnuts.”

Leeza has had a wide and varied career. Having achieved a Masters Degree in English at St Petersburg University, she initially worked as a Russian/English interpreter working at a G8 political summit for UK government institutions including Interpol and the UK Border Agency.

A self-taught caterer she founded the Russian Pie Company with her husband Steve, who has an MBA from London Business School, and was able to add his wealth of business experience and entrepreneurial skills to the company start-up.

The company has won a host of awards including in the 2018 Great Taste Awards for a number of their pies including three stars for their best-selling sea bass and cod pie which was in the top one per cent of all entries: “We have also won 25 British Pie Awards in the last three years, including in 2017, knocking one of the well-known big brands into second place – that was incredibly satisfying!”

The dough recipe used in Leeza’s pies is at least 150 years old and maintains the use of traditionally milled flours without the addition of unhealthy additives. She also ensures her ingredients are sourced from local suppliers: “I use minimum mechanisation in the making of my hand-crafted Russian piroshki. The results of this throwback to the old way of doing food serves me well,” Leeza explains.

We don’t always associate pies with our current drive for healthy eating, but the Russian Food Company ensure their speciality pies suit today’s quest for a healthy lifestyle: “I have created a healthier luxurious alternative to the traditional British pie, which is generally high in fat. Our pie dough has about 85 per cent less fat content.”

Meeting the demand for changing food tastes, most of the Russian pies created are vegetarian: “We originally made more vegetarian pies than meat pies because our two daughters, Rebecca and Clare, are both vegetarian and were our ‘official’ food tasters when the business started.

Over the last few years we have seen the majority of our pie sales being vegetarian – more recently our vegan pies have become best sellers too.”
Some of the unique pie fillings include salmon and cream cheese, chicken, cranberries and walnuts, beef and onion, Moroccan veggie, goats’ cheese, mushroom and potato, lamb and lingonberry, spring onion and egg. Buying Leeza’s amazing pies is easy too as the company offers a home delivery service nationwide.

Leeza’s pies have also been given the seal of celebrity approval when last year, Leeza chatted to Chris Evans on BBC Radio 2, who lauded Leeza’s pies calling her the Russian Pie Pioneer and in the same year the pies were part of the half-time taste test on BBC Sports News – winning the challenge!

Leeza’s family’s talents don’t stop at baking – they are also gifted musicians: “My mother is an international pianist and even though aged 80 years old, she still plays publicly, most recently in a couple of countries in the Asia Pacific region. She is also Professor of Music at the St Petersburg Conservatoire. My grandmother was the first ever female conductor, a renowned choirmaster, and trained many of the famous conductors in the world today including Vasily Petrenko of the Liverpool Philharmonic.”

They are indeed an extraordinarily talented family: “I am so honoured and proud that the long-standing recipes of my family are now being enjoyed by so many people,” concludes Leeza.

www.russianpies.com

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