Pie on the culinary map.

Roy Wood certainly has nothing against the Bakewell tart or the Melton Mowbray pork pie.

But when Roy, the man behind award-winning Halam gastro-pub, The Waggon and Horses, looked across the map of geographically named foods, he noticed a hole.

A Notts-shaped hole.

Now he's trying to put that right by bringing to the world the Nottinghamshire Pie.

The dish, a meaty pie benefiting from no small amount of proper Notts Stilton, has been created using nothing but ingredients from the county. Roy's motivation for this parochial pie-making was simple - he wanted to give Notts some good publicity. Good, edible publicity.

"I'm very happy to be part of something that's a bit of cheerfulness in the world at last," Roy said. "I'm proud of this county - I'm proud of Nottinghamshire."

He also notes that it's a proper traditional pie - not some trying-to-be-modern thing like a certain recently discarded city symbol.

"It's not a slanty pie," he said.

Roy's been pro-active in pie promotion, serving the pie to officials from Experience Nottinghamshire and putting the recipe on a direct mailer to homes around Notts. On Monday, he and the pie are attending a Taste Nottinghamshire event at Wollaton Park.

"It's going from strength to strength, to be honest," he said. "There's people coming in from droves from all over the county."

A pie with nothing but local ingredients is a natural for Roy, who can tick through the provenance of many of the foods in his kitchen without leaving the village. The pumpkin comes from the field next to the pub. The potatoes come from two fields away. The more well-traveled leeks, from four fields away. The pheasants are bagged in the local shoot.

"Pheasants are quivering in their boots because they start next week," Roy said of the village hunters.

It's almost a cliche today for a restaurateur to voice support for local producers, but Roy says he was doing it before it was cool.

"I've always done that all my catering life - you support the local businesses and they support you."

He reckons the Waggon and Horses uses more than 90 percent locally sourced produce. The menu's seasonal, and the only foods from farther afield are the ones that just aren't going to come from Notts fields. Halam has a distinct dearth of banana farmers, while the Trent can't quite deliver on all forms of seafood.

"I think it's a bit low on scallops at the moment."

It's a recipe that trade peers seem to respect - on Tuesday Roy heads down to London to find out how the place does in the finals of the Publican Awards in the Classic Pub Food category.

But Roy's eye is cast more firmly over Notts. Business is good, and he thinks he knows why.

"I heard there was a recession on or some credit crunch - if you work hard, have passion, love your job, you'll be fine," he said. "That's why people come back and they come back and they come back - they're walking into a place where people actually care."