No, don’t worry, Cooksister has not turned into an X-rated column… I’m talking about Jeffrey Soobramoney and his boerewors, which has just won the Shoprite Checkers Championship Boerewors Competition 2007! And I was thrilled to see that the runner-up John Miller is from my hometown of Port Elizabeth 
The competition has been running for an impressive thirteen years and came about as an annual search by supermarket chain Shoprite Checkers to stay abreast of consumer tastes by finding a unique traditional boerewors recipe that can be sold in Shoprite Checkers stores for a year. This year, more than a thousand of the country’s best boerewors makers rose to the challenge – up ten percent from last year – and competed in more than 80 regional rounds country-wide since July, before the ten best recipes were selected during the various provincial clashes in September.
It’s a serious business and the panel of judges includes a variety of top local food experts. Martin Kobald, Carmen Niehaus, Justine Drake, Citrum Khumalo, Jenny Morris, Francois Ferreira, Pieter Veldsman, True Love food editor Dorah Sitole, South African Chefs Association Academy member Kevin Gibbs and Competitions Director of the South African Chefs Association Jeff Schueremans.
The rules stipulate that each contestant’s boerewors must have a unique recipe. The most important requirement is that the boerewors must contain at least ninety percent pure meat, which can be made up of either beef, lamb or pork or a mixture of them. The boerewors is also healthy with rules stipulating that the boerewors may not contain more than thirty percent fat. Contestants braaied 1 kg of their own-recipe boerewors, which was judged both raw and cooked, by the independent judging panel. Contestants were judged on the texture and taste of their boerewors as well as the appearance and the combination of their spices.
This year’s winner, Jeffrey Soobramoney, was crowned at the final at Sun City’s Valley of the Waves earlier this month. Jeffrey is a butcher from Phoenix near Tongaat in Kwa-Zulu Natal and has entered the competition three or four times, but this is his first win. Although reluctant to give away his secret recipe, he did reveal that he experimented extensively with different spice combinations, making meticulous notes and highlighting particularly successful combinations in his search for the perfect wors.
Jeffrey’s prize-winning championship wors will be on sale in Shoprite Checkers stores as from 17 October – just the thing to braai while watchign the Rugby World Cup Final tomorrow.
GO BOKKE!!
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