SECRET UMLAZI RECIPE WINS 2022 BOERIE CHAMPIONSHIP
The 30th anniversary of the annual Shoprite/Checkers Championship Boerewors competition was held in Cape Town last Saturday. Hilary Biller was there to witness the 10 finalists battling it out for the title
SA’s favourite sausage has suffered many incarnations, some good, some bad, but in seeking an original, the country comes to the fore. This was reflected in the more than 2,000 people who entered their recipes to the annual Shoprite/Checkers Championship Boerewors competition. This year marked the 30th anniversary of the popular event and I was there last Saturday to witness 10 nervous but excited finalists as they lined up for a grilling at Cabo Beach near the Waterfront in Cape Town.
They hailed from around the country and included a good mix of butchers, two full-time students, one of whom took top honours in 2020, and two women, Nikita de Lange, 24, a trainer from Alberton, and Phozisa Magoda, 29, a butchery manager in Fisantekraal in the Western Cape. The nationwide search for 2022’s finest boerewors recipe kicked off in May, when the supermarket group partnered with South African Chefs Association (Saca) culinary experts entrusted with ensuring all entries were authentic and adhered to the guidelines for making truly traditional boerewors.
LOOKING FOR THE BEST BOERIE RECIPE
Boerewors is the only recipe whose ingredients are stipulated in the Government Gazette and, timeously, updated regulations were announced last week. According to the competition rules that follow these regulations, the organisers were looking for the best recipe made according to these guidelines:
Traditional boerewors must contain at least 90% meat — the main component must be beef, as well as lamb or pork (or a mixture of both), and the fat content may not exceed 30%. The distinctive combinations of spices such as coriander, cloves, nutmeg and black pepper, as well as liquids such as vinegar, water and Worcestershire sauce are what differentiates boerewors from other variants.
The recipe may not contain bacon, chutney, cheese, peri-peri, curry, tomato sauce, peppadews, green pepper, Parmesan, Aromat, chilli, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, paprika, whole peppercorns, green and pink peppercorns, lemon, soy, mustard, kidney (offal) fat, alcohol or venison.
HOW THE COMPETITION WORKS
The competition started in 1992 as an internal event for Shoprite/Checkers employees. In 2001 it was decided that in seeking out the country’s best boerewors recipe, the contest needed to be opened to everyone.
Saca’s honorary past president and vicepresident of the World Association of Chefs, chef Martin Kobald, has judged the competition for 18 years and, explaining the format, said it starts with Saca chefs going through the recipes submitted, the paper round, which must be original and adhere to the regulations. From this round 100 entries are selected, which are then whittled down to 30. In the next round the chefs and Shoprite/Checkers butchery experts make up the 30 recipes — raw and cooked. These are tasted and 10 finalists chosen. They then make up their recipes in the presence of a Saca representative and, if they pass the test, go to the finals. They then sign a declaration that their recipe remains a secret and head to the final cook-off.
On the day of the competition there’s much fanfare and excitement as a large crowd comes together — the finalists’ families, selected customers, staff and media gather at the “beach” for a celebratory braai-off with entertainment, music and, of course, many boerie rolls. Each finalist is assisted by a Saca chef (this, according to the organisers, helps allay the entrants’ nerves) and together they cook their boerewors over the coals to the finalist’s specifications. Once cooked it is presented, alongside the raw version, to the judges, who taste and rate the boerewors.
Once they’ve tasted all the recipes the scores are collated and verified by auditors and the winner is announced.
Celebrity chef and Checkers brand ambassador Zola Nene, who has judged the competition for five years, said: “The tasting process is quite rigorous — we taste the boerewors raw and cooked to make sure the flavours are balanced and delicious in both stages. The standard of entries is always very high. Entrants take the competition very seriously and whenever the judging becomes difficult, that’s when we know we have found quality — and a worthy winner.”
MEET THE WINNER
An overjoyed Welcome Magoso, 23, from Umlazi, south of Durban, couldn’t believe his luck when his name was called out as the winner of the 2022 Championship Boerewors competition. “I’m so happy about what happened today,” he said minutes after taking the title.
Magoso, a first-time entrant, is a meat technician at Shoprite in Umlazi. “When sitting with my recipe before I came here [to Cape Town] they [my colleagues] told me I was number one, but I wasn’t sure ... and was very nervous,” he said.
It was his brother, who accompanied him to Cape Town, who helped secure his job.
“My brother works at Checkers. After leaving school I couldn’t find a job and when the opportunity came up to train as a blockman, he put my name forward,” said Magoso.
After in-store training, it took five months of making boerewors with his colleagues and analysing each of his endeavours before he believed he’d found the right recipe to submit to the competition.
His winning entry was for a thick boerewors (competitors can enter thick or thin wors recipes). The secret, he said, was to use quality, A-grade meat. He combined beef and pork “which makes the boerewors very juicy. You must have the juiciness,” he emphasised. More than that he’s not giving anything away — as per the rules of the competition he can’t disclose his recipe.
With a huge smile, Magoso said winning meant a lot, and it would change his life. With the R50,000 prize money he was going to build a house and with his prize car, a bright red Toyota Fortuner worth more than R600,000, he could now drive to work. This would make life much easier for him, his parents and four siblings. Apart from the prizes, the top honour is having his boerewors sold in Shoprite and Checkers nationwide from September 9.
The runners-up, Chris Roodt, a meat market manager from Cradock in the Eastern Cape, and student Delano Jasper, a previous winner, won R30,000 and R20,000 respectively.
MEET THE FIRST WINNER
In 1992 Tommy Hendriks, above, walked off with a R6,000 prize. Now retired, he was then a butcher at Shoprite in Upington. Hendriks believes it was his training as a blockman and polony/sausage maker that stood him in good stead. He said the best boerewors is made using top-quality, well-trimmed beef brisket. And cooking? If cooked over a fire, he said Namibian kameelhout makes the best coals. If cooked in a pan it is best to warm it first. And, he warned, never use a fork to turn boerewors. Instead, use an egg lifter.