The National Pies Cheeseburger Pie that has been selling out at Bunnings cafes is now being stocked on Woolworths shelves. First introduced in 2022, the pie quickly became National Pies’ best-performing limited release, outselling even the brand’s iconic Classic Beef Pie. It returned for a limited run at Bunnings in March 2026, before Tasmanian Bakeries, the company behind National Pies, decided the time was right to take it retail. Tasmanian Bakeries CEO Geraldine Tebbutt said, “We’re delighted the Cheeseburger Pie has once again become a best-selling limited time offer at Bunnings, which allows us to expand its run so fans can conveniently enjoy this delicious pie at home. “Making the Cheeseburger Pie available for consumers to enjoy at home has been in development for some time. Its recent limited run at Bunnings Warehouse confirmed for all of us that the timing is right. “We’re hearing more and more that convenience and quality are key when it comes to home meal preparation, which is why the Cheeseburger Pie can be found in the refrigerated or ready-meals aisles. The pies are delivered direct to Woolworths, fresh-sealed from our Tasmanian bakery, and can be baked at home in an air fryer or conventional oven in just 15 minutes.” The Woolworths version comes in twin packs, sitting in the refrigerated or ready-made meals aisles, and is ready in 15 minutes via air fryer or conventional oven. Tasmanian Bakeries uses an air-removal packaging technology that locks in bakery-fresh quality without freezing, allowing the pies to be delivered directly from its Hobart bakery to Woolworths’ fridges with an extended shelf life. The recipe features 100% Australian beef, tomato ketchup, American-style mustard, dill pickle juice and a rich cheese sauce, all wrapped in National Pies’ 128 layers of crispy puff pastry and finished with poppy seeds and parmesan cheese. National Pies’ wider range is available at Coles, Woolworths and independent retailers, including IGA and Foodworks nationwide. Source: Soda Communications Find more food and drink news on Crumb Wire.

Pappa Flock is going full Y2K with a Scary Movie collaboration, launching a limited-edition Munchies Menu and in-store Ghostface takeover from Tuesday, May 26. The collab with Paramount Pictures Australia arrives ahead of Scary Movie hitting cinemas on June 4, with two new menu items available at all Pappa Flock restaurants nationwide. New menu items Sour Power Lemonade: Pappa Flock’s freshly-squeezed house-made lemonade gets a sour candy makeover, opening with a sharp sour burst before settling into the brand’s signature lemonade. Served with sour candies and a Ghostface lollipop. Munchie Cup: A crispy Pappa Flock chicken tender packed alongside caramel popcorn. Sweet, salty and maximum crunch. The launch Pappa Flock will host media and content creators at official Scary Movie preview screenings across Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, with both new menu items served throughout. Brisbane kicks off early with a Scary Movie trivia night at the Chermside restaurant ahead of the premiere. Y2K lounge activations will transform the Bondi Junction and Chermside restaurants, while Ghostface phones on the counters of all restaurants invite customers to pick up and record their best “Waazzzuuup” for the chance to win a double pass to the film. Pappa Flock’s branding will also get a temporary Ghostface-inspired makeover across packaging, social media and crew uniforms for the duration of the partnership. Rachel Korbel, Chief Marketing Officer at Pappa Flock, said, “When we got the opportunity to collaborate on the official Munchies Menu, we couldn’t say no. Scary Movie is one of those franchises that’s just pure, unapologetically fun, and that’s exactly who we are at Pappa Flock. “Our Munchies Menu is for everyone who grew up screaming ‘Waazzzuuup’ with their mates. From the Y2K lounge activations to the Ghostface logo, this collab goes well beyond the menu. The Melbourne screening also marks a special milestone for our Aussie-owned brand, as it’ll be the first time we’ve served our famous crispy chicken in Victoria. We can’t wait for Flockers to get their hands on it.” The Melbourne screening also marks a milestone for the Aussie-owned brand, making it the first time Pappa Flock has served its chicken in Victoria. Source: This Is Human Find more food culture updates on Crumb Wire.

Sanpellegrino is bringing a pinch of Sicilian salt to Australian shelves with its newest range of flavoured sparkling waters. Sanpellegrino CIAO! is inspired by Sicily’s long-standing tradition of blending sparkling water with fruit juice and a touch of salt to bring out natural flavour. The launch comes as a FOODiQ Global report finds still and sparkling water now outsells sugary soft drinks in Australia, with a 36% market share versus 23%, a dramatic shift from just 4.8% in 1997. The range introduces three new flavours: Lime, Blood Orange and Peach, each made with fruit juice and a pinch of Sicilian salt, with no added sugar and a very low calorie count. Damian Giorgini, Sanpellegrino Italian Sparkling Drinks Brand Manager, said, “Sanpellegrino CIAO! is a natural extension of our Italian heritage, reimagined for today’s Australian consumer. “With increasing demand for more mindful yet elevated refreshments across retail shelves and hospitality menus, CIAO! offers a distinctive proposition – light, flavourful and inherently premium, with strong relevance for both everyday refreshment and on-premise dining occasions.” Australians will get their first taste at the Pizza Pasta & Italian Food Show at ICC Sydney, Darling Harbour from May 25 to 27, where the full range will be available to sample alongside food pairing opportunities and exclusive trade show offers. Independent supermarkets are also beginning to stock the product. A wider national rollout is expected to follow, with the range hitting Woolworths from August 31, 2026. Source: Havas Red Find more food retail updates on Crumb Wire.

Australian restaurants and bars are slowly allowing AI to handle their paperwork, marking a clear shift in how the hospitality industry operates behind the scenes. The technology being adopted isn’t the kind you chat with. Rather than conversational AI like ChatGPT or Claude, venues are turning to agentic AI tools like Dext‘s AI Assist, which uses computer vision to read receipts and invoices, including handwritten ones, and automatically extract and categorise every line item into the correct place in a venue’s bookkeeping records. Venues leveraging AI Steven Blaine from Decimal, a hospitality finance and technology partner based in Western Australia, said the problem the technology is solving is bigger than it looks from the outside. “Running a hospitality business is a real grind at times. However, technology is changing this, and many venues are capitalising on new ways of working by leveraging AI,” he said. “If you run a large kitchen, you’re getting fruit and vegetables every day, seafood, meat and all sorts of deliveries. You might have 50 supplier invoices on a weekly basis just for one department. On top of this, hospitality businesses also require far more granular financial data than many other industries because operators need precise visibility into spending across multiple categories. Applying an AI agent to this challenge means more precision, fewer mistakes and saving a lot of time.” Real world applications The real-world applications are surprisingly specific. One of Decimal’s clients was buying produce for both its bar and kitchen from the same supplier, but with invoices addressed slightly differently depending on the account. Before AI, separating those costs manually was unavoidable. Now it happens automatically. Blaine said, “AI-powered automation can separate these costs easily and precisely, saving the venue huge amounts of time, and allowing them to calculate profit from food sales more easily.” “One of our hospo clients buys fruit and vegetables for both their bar and kitchen from the same supplier. But the invoices are addressed slightly differently depending on the account,” he added. “Before AI, we couldn’t automatically code those invoices correctly, separating the two different budgets for the venue’s bar and kitchen. AI now can seamlessly code everything to the right expense account, without any manual input from us or the venue.” Another Decimal client needed fuel levy charges separated from food costs during a period of rising diesel prices. “We used the auto-categorisation, line-item extraction and agentic AI rule on Dext to automate the process. The combination of automation, AI-powered data extraction and intelligent categorisation dramatically improves both efficiency and accuracy for hospitality operators,” Blaine explained. Regulation, compliance and front-of-house use AI is also being used for regulatory compliance in the hospitality space. During an ATO audit, cancelled ABNs from suppliers can become a serious liability for venues. According to Blaine, if the ATO audits a venue and finds cancelled ABNs from suppliers, that becomes a serious issue. It’s up to the venue to check that all their suppliers have a valid ABN, and that can be a real pain. AI comes to the rescue in those instances. The technology is also moving into front-of-house. AI-powered reservation agents can answer incoming calls, collect customer details and book tables without any staff involvement, a meaningful development for venues dealing with ongoing staffing shortages. “One really interesting area is AI-powered reservation agents,” Blain shared. “When you ring a venue, instead of a staff member stopping what they’re doing to answer the phone, the AI handles the booking, collects the customer information and reserves the table automatically.” Cloud-based point-of-sale platforms are also embedding AI-driven analytics that let operators ask plain-language questions about their business and get answers instantly rather than manually pulling reports. “You can ask questions like: ‘How many people come back after using the burger-and-pint promotion to buy anything else?’ Previously, you’d have to manually run reports and analyse the data yourself. Now AI can surface those insights almost instantly.” For an industry that runs on razor-thin margins, the question is no longer whether AI has a place in hospitality. It’s how quickly venues can get on board. Source: Brightus Find more food culture updates on Crumb Wire.