Former boerewors champion wins again with new recipe

Quality meat, a good selection of spices and a professional preparation technique. These are the secrets to preparing award-winning boerewors, according to two-time Championship Boerewors title holder Olivier Kritzinger.

The 66-year-old from Joubertina in the Eastern Cape was crowned the 2019 winner in Cape Town on Wednesday during an exclusive beach braai-off at V&A Waterfront’s Grand Africa Cafe.

Kritzinger was among 10 contestants in the final where judges spent the day sampling the finalists’ secret recipes to determine what would become Shoprite and Checkers’ best-selling wors.

Picture: Supplied

Among the contestants, who hailed from across South Africa and were representative of the many things that make our nation unique, was 28-year-old Shoprite employee, Vincent Cupido, 2018 Championship Boerewors title holder and 2019 runner-up, Yvonne Blaauw, five-time entrant, Magrieta Solomons and retired teacher, Alida Kruger.

Experience seemed to trump passion this time as all but one of the the contestants were over 40 and have years of experience in wors preparation.

The competition, which has been running for over 20 years, was judged by celebrity chef Zola Nene, giggling gourmet Jenny Morris, former Masterchef South Africa judge Pete Goffe-Wood and president of the South African Chefs Association, James Khoza.

“As judges we’re looking at will it be sellable on shelves? Does it call out to you as a consumer? How it cooks … how it tastes,” said Khoza, explaining the judging panel’s considerations in selecting a winner.

Olivier Kritzinger with runner-up Yvonne Blaauw and Magrieta Solomons. Picture: Supplied

In addition, the judges weighed up factors like casing, crumbing, flavouring and juiciness.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers audited the judging process in which random numbers were assigned to contestants. The panel then judged the anonymous samples attached to each number to determine a winner.

Thanks to his new recipe, which differs from the one that won him the title back in 2016, Kritzinger also walked away with prizes to the value of more than R500 000. Among these was a brand-new Toyota Fortuner 2.4 GD-6 4X4.

Kritzinger’s boerewors will be on sale in all Shoprite and Checkers stores nationwide from Friday, September 13 – just in time for the Heritage Day braai bonanza and ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

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