The founder of popular bakery WeeCOOK is hoping to wow supermarket giants Aldi with her ‘sassy’ fish pie.
Hayley Wilkes, from Barry Downs, is set to appear on Channel 4’s ‘Aldi’s Next Big Thing’ – hosted by Anita Rani and Chris Bavin.
The six-part series sees suppliers compete in categories including dinners and baked goods.
Products are then presented to Julie Ashfield, Aldi’s managing director of buying.
She will deliberate on factors such as price, packaging, shopper demand, and the ability to scale up, before shortlisting contestants down to two.
The finalists are then given four weeks to address any feedback, with a follow-up home visit from Anita or Chris who will report back their findings to Julie.
The three then taste-test the improved products, before Julie decides the winner, which will appear as a ‘Specialbuy’ in more than 1,000 stores.
WeeCOOK fishwife pie to feature on Channel 4 show
Having established WeeCOOK Kitchen in 2011, Hayley was picked from hundreds of applicants for the show.
Viewers will see her present the multi-award winning, hand-filled, fishwife pie to the judges.
She said: “The fishwife pie, as a girl growing up in the 90s, is my homage to girl power.
It’s not like a normal fisherman’s pie. This is like the sassy, Scottish little sister of the fisherman’s pie – the next-gen as it were.”
A change from the traditional fish pie, the fishwife pie is filled with Scottish haddock, smoked haddock, salmon and local Arbroath Smokies, bound together in a family recipe of fish stock and parsley sauce.
Hayley said: “In Scotland there’s a massive pie scene.
“Meat pies are traditionally very popular here, but our pies are different. Each is hand filled and hand finished.”
You’ll be able to find out if the fishwife pie makes it onto Aldi shelves at 8pm on Tuesday, April 9.
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