Stuart Thrush Introduces Meat Pies to Danes

In an instalment of “My Danish Career”, The Local speaks with New Zealander Stuart Thrush, who traded out the corporate life with shipping giant Mærsk for a Copenhagen pie adventure. Wild Kiwi Pies opened at the beginning of February.

“I had been wanting to do my own thing for such a long time but never had the balls. After leaving Mærsk I decided to invest in starting my own business but the biggest challenge for me was just to simply do it,” Thrush told The Local.

“Running this business and creating the pies each day doesn’t feel like working to me, its like I am enjoying my hobby everyday,” he added. “I want to do more of what I enjoy and to have a lot more freedom in life, eventually.”

Introducing Danes to a new food concept has had its challenges. Recently Thrush took to the road with his pies on board to sell the concept of meat pies to the rest of Denmark.

“We realise that single-serve meat pies are a new thing to many Danes and we want to give more people the chance to try them and to do that we need to get out there and work hard. My goal is to get Denmark eating pies and I want to define what a pie means to Danes – that is isn’t just the American style sweet pies but a hot savoury pie,” he said.

The dramatic career change has done little to change Thrush’s opinion of his adopted country.

“I enjoy life in Denmark, I find people open and the culture here gives you the freedom to be who you want to be.”

Original article by Melanie Haynes, The Local, May 23, 2016.