LONDON (Reuters) - To aficionados, it is comfort food at its best. To others, it is as appetizing as its nickname -- a "rat's coffin".
The savoury pie, a mainstay of the British diet for thousands of years, is getting a makeover as Britain sheds a once-sagging culinary reputation and top chefs return to traditional fare.
Originating around 8000 BC with seabirds baked in feathers and hedgehogs rolled in leaves or grass, the pastry-baked pie evolved from Roman times into a standby for soccer fans.
In the 19th century, the fictional character of Sweeney Todd -- the murderous barber of Fleet Street -- played on Britons' suspicions about pie fillings with an accomplice who baked his butchered victims into meat pies.
In the wake of industrialization, pies became cellophane-wrapped rubbery microwave fodder, mass-produced on assembly lines and often oozing with fat and additives.
Britain's culinary revolution has forced the dish out of hiding. New chains selling traditional hot pastry-wrapped delights have sprung up throughout the country, many with the focus on quality and fresh ingredients.
"Everyone loves a pie -- it reminds you of mum," said Martin Dewey, founder of the Square Pie chain, which he set up in London in 2001 to offer a more wholesome variety of pies. "But pies needed an update -- they had been neglected for too long."
The Daily Telegraph newspaper has described his shops as "the crusted equivalent of haute couture", and some new pie start-ups have investors salivating at the potential easy cash flow and Starbucks-like growth of small stalls offering busy Britons a wholesome, more British alternative to burgers.
"It's a great on-the-go food, easy for commuters and the time-poor, cash-rich consumer," said Mike O'Brien, a partner at Gresham Private Equity. His firm bought one of the larger chains, West Cornwall Pasty Co., for about 40 million pounds in October.
"People want healthy food, but also convenience and a proper balance," he added.
Based in the south west and building on the Cornish pasty -- a staple from the heyday of tin-mining -- the company was founded almost 10 years ago and today sells about 6 million folded pies a year from more than 50 shops located near shopping districts and railway stations.
BULKING UP
Other small companies also report fast-growing sales.
"We've been doubling our annual sales for several years running, and we're selling about 25,000 pies a year now," said Jonathan Simon, co-founder of Bristol-based Pieminister, which offers its pies wholesale, retail and online.
"It's one of those products everyone knows but is often disappointed with -- there's lots of room for high quality pies," he said.
