22nd Annual World Porridge Making Championships

Rookyard

The World Porridge Making Championships, which take place every year in the Scottish Highland village of Carrbridge in Cairngorms National Park, is one of the highlights in Scotland’s culinary calendar. The 2015 competition took place on Saturday 10th October, and we were delighted to sponsor the event for a 15th consecutive year.

The title of World Porridge Making Champion is awarded to the competitor who makes the best traditional porridge using only three ingredients – oatmeal, salt and water. The event draws competitors from around the globe, hoping to win the highly-coveted Golden Spurtle trophy and title.

The 2015 winner was astrophysicist, Simon Rookyard, from Greater Manchester, a researcher at the Jodrell Bank radio telescope, part of the University of Manchester, who had just completed his PhD thesis. Simon described winning the competition as “a Good Days Work”, and said that being the new World Porridge Making Champion will certainly make him stand out from the crowd in his search for a job in his field of Astrophysics!

The speciality winner was Norwegian Thorbjorn Kristensen who impressed judges with his dish of Porridge Waffles.

The 20-strong international line up included a Finnish biochemist, a Swedish doctor, a Norwegian museum manager, a Swedish youth hostel owner, a Swiss miller, a South African chef, an American personal assistant, and a Czech small business owner, as well as competitors from across the UK including a Gaelic singer, a PhD pulsar physics student, an NHS renal consultant, an offshore chef, an oatcake maker, an environmental scientist, and an artist.

The competitors were closely watched by four judges: Neil Mugg, Head Pastry Chef at The Gleneagles Hotel, Masterchef Colin Bussey, who has 34 years’ experience in the food industry including at The Savoy and Gleneagles, and guest judges, Ron MacKenna, restaurant critic at ‘The Herald’, and Jonathan Engels of Crossbill Gin whose Aviemore gin distillery and bar won Channel 4’s ‘Amazing Spaces’ 2015 ‘Shed of the Year’ and most recently European Craft Gin 2015.

After the winners were announced, Alan Meikle, Managing Director of Hamlyns of Scotland said: “Hamlyns are absolutely delighted to sponsor the World Porridge Making Championships again. It has been a fantastic day, and we’d like to congratulate the worthy  winners and everyone else who took part, along with the judges and the event organisers.”

Read all about the competition and how to enter this year, at the Golden Spurtle website.

Enter here

Comments are closed.