The winner of Masterchef 2022 has visited Bettys in Harrogate to give his verdict on the brand’s traditional mince pies.

Eddie Scott has been reviewing the festive favourites from numerous outlets since late October — and this week was the turn of Harrogate’s famous café and retailer.

Scoring Bettys’ classic mince pies 9.2 out of 10 on his Instagram account, he said:

“This mince pie is jammed full of mincemeat, absolutely. The pastry has a beautiful texture. This is Eddie’s standard.

“Mincemeat is ample, rich, delicious. It’s spiced, full of booze, the pastry is crumbly. It’s like a home-made pastry.”

Eddie praised the presentation of the mince pies and the design of the box, which he described as “like a 1930s cocktail glass”.

After winning Masterchef this year, Eddie quit his job as a marine pilot based in Hull to pursue a career in food. He has worked for Gordon Ramsay and at the popular Pipe and Glass in Beverley this year, and has almost 50,000 followers on Instagram

Each week, he posts a new mince pie review, and has so far covered brands including the Co-op, Aldi, Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s.

Bettys is currently the highest-rated, ahead of M&S at 8.6, Sainsbury’s at 8.4, Greggs at 8.2 and Iceland at 8.1.

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At £18 for 12, the Bettys box is among the more expensive Eddie has reviewed, but scored higher than some of the other luxury brands. Fortnum and Mason’s box of six for £12.95 was described as “underwhelming”, while boutique bakery Gails was given just 3.1 for its “awful” box of six for £14.

Concluding his Bettys review, Eddie added:

“This is in a different league. This is knocking my socks off. It just tastes like such a home-made product.

“If you want to buy some mince pies for a special occasion, these are the ones to get, because these are luxury.

“Yorkshire have done it again, because everything in Yorkshire is better.”

Eddie isn’t the first to rate Bettys’ mince pies as among the best: they came out top in a Good Housekeeping poll earlier this year.

Bettys said the time taken to craft the mince pies with passion was behind their success, along with many of its other festive products which also frequently rank highly in taste tests.

Ruth Burke-Kennedy from Bettys said:

“We were thrilled when Eddie got in touch to ask to review our classic mince pies, having rooted for him on Masterchef.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with his Instagram review. It certainly drew attention to us when he posted it yesterday, and they were our second best-selling product online, after our Night Before Christmas gift box.”