Golden Spurtle trophy up for grabs again

ENTRIES have opened for the 25th annual World Porridge Making Championship, with organisers anticipating a high level of interest from aficionados from all over the world — not to mention Dundee.

The competition will take place in the Highland village of Carrbridge on Saturday October 6.

The World Porridge Making Championship is one of the most popular events in Scotland’s culinary calendar, with professional and amateur chefs, food producers, food bloggers, small business owners and home cooks from all over the world vying for the title.

The coveted title of world porridge making champion, and the Golden Spurtle trophy, is awarded to the contestant deemed to have made the best traditional porridge using just three ingredients — oatmeal, water and salt.

The current champion is Ellinor Persson, a steel industry worker from Sweden, who runs foodie tours in the woods, fields and speciality restaurants around her local town of Halmstaad in her spare time.

Ellinor, who is planning to return to Carrbridge to defend her title, won the 2017 championship in an international field which also included competitors from the US, Russia, Switzerland, Holland, Iceland and across the UK and Ireland.

As well as the traditional porridge competition, there is also a speciality category for oatmeal combined with any other ingredients, leading to a wide variety of sweet and savoury entries.

The current speciality winner is also a Swede, Per Carlsson, who impressed the judges with his dish of Nordic porridge, caramel sweet and sour, a porridge made with oatmeal, cloudberry liqueur, orange peel and whipped cream.