Winners Spotlight: The Lucky Pig
19 Nov 2025 / Food
The Lucky Pig celebrates national success at the 2025 Melbourne Royal Australian Food Awards
Bentleigh’s own craft butchery and smokehouse, The Lucky Pig, has taken out top honours at the 2025 Melbourne Royal Australian Food Awards (MRAFA), earning national recognition for its dedication to traditional butchery, small-batch production and uncompromising quality.
Owned and operated by Luke Iles, The Lucky Pig has been a fixture of the Bentleigh community since 2015. Originally launched under a different name, the business underwent a full rebrand in 2022 to sharpen its focus on premium in-house butchery and smokehouse production.
Today, everything is still made by hand in-store using Australian meat and traditional techniques — a philosophy that sets the business apart in an industry increasingly driven by mass production.
That commitment to craft was rewarded at this year’s MRAFA, where The Lucky Pig was awarded the Champion Trophy for Best Value Add Meat for its standout creation, The Leaning Tower sausage. The business also earned Best Gourmet Sausage in Class for the same product, along with Best Cooked Meat in Class for its Free Range Smoked Chicken Breast.
For Luke and his team, the wins are more than industry recognition — they are validation of the work that happens long before a product reaches the counter.
“Most of what we do is unseen once it leaves the counter,” Luke said. “Winning confirmed that traditional skills and effort still matter. It showed our team that the craft of butchery is valued, and it motivates us to keep pushing our standards higher.”
The Leaning Tower has become one of The Lucky Pig’s most popular products — a sausage originally inspired by a customer request, now refined into a perfectly balanced blend of Australian pork, chilli, fennel, basil and craft ale. Made without fillers or shortcuts, it was designed to be both approachable for home cooks and impressive enough for restaurant kitchens.
The award-winning smoked chicken breast reflects the same philosophy: simple ingredients treated with skill and respect. Using free-range Australian chicken and a slow, traditional smoking method — never liquid smoke or artificial additives — the product has quickly become a favourite for its versatility and clean, natural flavour.
The Lucky Pig’s success is grounded in its belief in real food made with care. Each sausage, burger, smoked cut and ready-to-cook meal pack is crafted in small batches by a team that knows its customers by name. The business strives to be a butcher where people feel comfortable asking questions and learning how to cook with confidence at home.
Looking ahead, Luke hopes to expand The Lucky Pig’s in-house production and smokehouse range, while continuing to champion traditional techniques and create new training opportunities for the next generation of butchers.
“We want to keep raising the standard for what a local butcher can be,” Luke said. “If we grow, it will be through quality, reputation and community support rather than volume.”
The Lucky Pig products are available in store at 452 Centre Road, Bentleigh, and online at luckypig.com.au, with delivery and click-and-collect options across surrounding suburbs.
Follow The Lucky Pig on
Instagram: @luckypigbentleigh
Facebook: The Lucky Pig
Head to melbourneroyal.com.au/food for more information about the Awards program, and for a full list of the 2025 winners.