Filled with pride

By Ed Merrison
A FAMILYRUN Yarra Junction pie company has celebrated its 50th birthday with a spate of medals.
Tromp Pies, which is owned by husbandandwife team Jenny and Steven Nicholas, was awarded gold at the 16th Great Aussie Meat Pie Competition for its Premium Steak Pie earlier this month.
On the first occasion Tromp Pies has entered the competition, it also came back to the valley with a pair of bronze medals for its chunky beef and chicken and vegetable varieties.
“To get those awards during the month of our 50th birthday is doubly special,” Mrs Nicholas said.
The history of Tromp in the valley began half a century ago when Dutch baker John Tromp migrated to Australia and took over a Yarra Junction cake factory, which he gradually expanded and shifted the emphasis from cakes to pies.
In April 2000, a new dynasty took over with the trusted Tromp recipe of a healthy dollop of family and more than a pinch of Dutch baking heritage.
The family of Jenny Nicholas, nee Boer, has its roots in the Netherlands, and Mrs Nicholas’s father was a pastry cook in the Yarra Valley region.
“My generation is the fifth generation of bakers we know of, and my son Nicholas represents the sixth generation,” Mrs Nicholas said.
Timothy, 18, works full time at the Yarra Junction factory, helping father Steven bake while Mrs Nicholas keeps the books.
“We get the meat from Harry’s Fresh Meats in Yarra Junction because he’s given us the best service and the best product.
“The vegetables come from Mount Evelyn and Woori Yallock and there’s not a frozen vegetable anywhere in the pies or pasties,” Mr Nicholas said.
Everything that goes into the 45 dozen pies the family might prepare in a full day is prepared by hand.
It is this ethos that has remained since the days of John Tromp whose original recipe for the Premium Steak Pie has been more or less preserved since the beginning of the Tromp empire 50 years ago.
And it is this, above all else, that gives the Nicholas family such satisfaction at their win in the Great Aussie Pie Competition.
“I think it’s kind of special,” said Mrs Nicholas.
“When you think of all the places that entered all over Australia, and we’re just a small family bakery, really, we felt that was an honour.”