|
Sergeant Coleen Hayward MacLeod, a British Army
cook back home after service in Iraq, was the surprise (and surprised) winner of
the much-prized Golden Spurtle at the 2006 World Porridge Making Championship in
Carrbridge, Inverness-shire, Scotland.
The BBC reported that the sergeant, who used to
live in Stornoway, Western Isles, had served in the armed forces for 18 years.
She's in charge of making porridge every day for up to 400 troops from the 1st
Royal Irish Regiment stationed at Fort George, near Inverness.
"Sgt MacLeod should know her oats, having
served up tonnes of Scotland’s national dish to her colleagues in the 1st
Royal Irish Regiment, who recently returned from service in Iraq," the Strathspey
and Badenoch Herald reported next day.
"The chef, who has been with the Army for the
past 18 years, includes porridge on the daily breakfast menu for the soldiers
and believes it is the perfect way to start their day."
Coleen said “I really didn’t expect to do so
well. There was some very strong competition and a lot of very good professional
chefs taking part."
In addition to the Golden Trophy she received a £350
hotel voucher and £250 spending money from the event's main sponsors, oatmeal
producers Hamlyns of Scotland.
Addy Daggert, a Dutch chef working at The Cock and
Bull restaurant and bar at Balmedie, produced an appetising bowl of white
chocolate porridge with stewed autumn fruits and whisky cream. That concoction
won him a Quaich (a two-handled drinking cup) awarded by liqueur marketers
Columba Cream. The trophy was "named in honour of porridge making legend
and four times world champion Duncan Hilditch."
Among the contestants were professional chefs and
caterers, a former boarding-school cook, guest house owners and housewives, all
eager to show they could make perfect porridge.
A retired farmer, Alec Coutts (81) from Inverness,
represented Australian porridge-lovers Velvet Perston (70), and her husband
Alastair (80), who, to their sorrow, couldn't get to Scotland for the event.
(Last year, Velvet confided to The Sydney Morning Herald that she had
used her husband's spurtle every day of her married life).
The porridge-making championship was only one of
many attractions in Carrbridge that day. The Sydney couple also missed seeing
the Challenge Fun Run sponsored by Nairn's Oatcakes, an aerobic warm-up led by
local fitness instructor Sam Bain, the Cairngorms Farmers' Market, product
tastings, Stoat's Porridge Bar, and a belly-dancing demonstration by Sisters of
the Desert.
FOOTNOTE. Don't you know what a spurtle is? Nor did
we. Here's a definition from the official championship website:
Some say porridge should only be stirred in a
clock wise direction using the right hand so you don't evoke the 'Devil'. The
stirring is done with a straight wooden spoon /stick without a moulded or flat
end and known is Scotland as a 'Spurtle' or 'Theevil'. Porridge should always be
spoken of as 'they' and an old custom states that it should be eaten standing
up. A bone spoon should always be used for eating porridge.
|
Links
|
|
|
|
This story has also been
published by the UK daily literary webzine Open
Writing.
|
The E-Book can be accessed by clicking on the GrayPow icon on the sidebar.
| 
