Dutch woman causes a stir by winning world porridge-making title

When Gina Saarberg started cooking porridge as a student to save money on food, she could never have guessed that it would take her all the way to a world title.

The 28-year-old from Zutphen won the Golden Spurtle at the weekend, the prestigious trophy awarded to the winner of the annual porridge making championships in Carrbridge, Scotland.

Saarberg put her success down to the ingredients she used, including pinhead oats from Noord-Brabant company De Halm and water from her home city in Gelderland. “It’s very soft and I think the mineral content may have something to do with it,” she told BBC Scotland.

A panel of judges headed by former Gleneagles chef Neil Mugg named Saarberg as the best of 30 competitors from 14 countries, including Norway and Australia. She qualified for the event by winning the Dutch national championships in June.

“I started eating porridge in my student days, but I used rolled oats,” she said. “When I switched to oatmeal I found that it made a much creamier porridge – it reminded me of rice pudding.”

The contest, now in its 33rd year, only allows competitors to use oats, water and salt to make traditional porridge, although there is a speciality category where oatmeal can be combined with more exotic ingredients.

Saarberg said: “I only started adding salt to my porridge for the competition and quickly realised that it really brings out the nuances and different aromas, and makes it taste much better.”

The speciality award was won by Australian porridge champion Rob Reid with his porridge cannoli, a fusion of Sicilian and Scottish cuisine based on his own heritage.

“My dad’s Scottish and my mum’s Sicilian, so when I was thinking about what I could do, the idea came to me,” he said. “Then I had to work out how I could possibly make it in 30 minutes.”