Two Liverpool chefs are preparing to take festival season by storm with their homemade pies

Two Liverpool chefs are preparing to take festival season by storm with their homemade pies and a business that’s got the Scousest name!

Mates Stephen Bygrave and Daniel Furlong launched The Lids & Co catering last month, debuting their pies on home turf at the Grand National.

Since then they’ve been inundated with bookings and requests and they’re getting ready for an incredibly busy summer season up and down the country as well as weddings and parties.

The pair hand craft all the pies themselves, creating unique fillings and making all the mash and gravy from scratch.

Ste says it’s the combination of quality and originality that’s been such a hit with customers.

“I have a catering agency, we supply staff for festivals, and I’ve never seen a pie van. Even Glastonbury, where there are hundreds of traders, only had one so that’s why we went with pies,” he says.

“It’s just something different that no one else is really doing and pies are so versatile because we don’t just do savoury, we also have dessert pies and breakfast pies. 

“Because it’s just the two of us designing the menu we can work on ideas and basically put whatever we want on there and the reaction has been unbelievable.”

After Aintree, The Lids & Co did a pop-up in Kirkby and completely sold out of 2,500 pies in just four days.

“It was absolutely amazing, they just flew out, every day was busier and busier and our socials have gone crazy with so many comments asking when we’re coming back.”

Ste, who’s from Norris Green, and Danny from Huyton met about 18 years ago doing agency chef work in restaurants around town. 

They kept in touch and six months ago, when Ste spotted a secondhand vintage Citroen van advertised online, he messaged Danny to see if he was interested. They actually ended up buying two vans, taking the kitchen out of the first and installing it in a second to create a bigger driveable version.

“I run a cookery school for disabled adults in Tuebrook so we’ve been making the pies in there by hand. We blast chill and freeze them because of volume and then take them to events to cook which is easier and means there’s no waste,” adds Ste.

Even though they’ve only been going for a month, The Lids & Co already has a packed diary for 2025, including Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Sefton Park later this month and the furthest one so far, Boardmasters in Newquay, Cornwall in August.

Being in control of fillings allows the two chefs to vary the menu for different locations, so there’ll be a salt and pepper chicken in Liverpool and pie and liquor for southerners.

They’ve also got a vegan, a gluten free scouse, and a breakfast with sausage, beans and spam, plus fried egg, black pudding and hash browns on top for festivals. 

Not surprisingly, the scouse pie has been their biggest seller so far, closely followed by the daddy pie which is filled with slow-braised brisket, jalapenos, gherkins and blue cheese. 

“Everything is from scratch including the mash – we did 250kilos for Kirkby, boiling the potatoes in skins, peeling while they’re hot and reducing cream and butter, because that’s what gives you the best mash. 

“It’s a long process, it took us a whole day to make, but it’s worth it for the taste. 

“We were a bit nervous when we launched because no one had seen us before but the reaction we’ve had has been unreal. We’re booked out every weekend for the festival season so now we just want to get our pies absolutely everywhere.”

Check out their instagram here.

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