For a Moray food critic, the weekend’s World Porridge Championships proved that the breakfast dish holds so many benefits above and beyond nutrition.
The winning Golden Spurtle may have escaped finalist and food journalist, Liz Ashworth, but her love of porridge is rooted in her family history, and she is determined to share her passion for a “handful of health” in any way possible.
At the Carrbridge championships, away from the kitchen, the food she holds so dearly came to life as a rendition of the porridge song she recorded with her late father reverberated around the room.
The lyrics are as follows: “Healthy and hearty I’ve been all me days, For I’ve supped me porridge in all sorts of ways, Frae oats that grow local and cream frae ma coo, Spirtle stirred smoothly and now served to you.”
The 64-year-old said: “My dad had a music shop and a recording studio in Elgin until 1979. He used to love porridge too, and we recorded the song, which they played at the world championships on the Friday night. It was great.
“I think just about every day of my life – barring a few days on holidays – I have had a bowl of porridge for my breakfast.
“I just can’t start my day without porridge, and my dad had a great love for it as well. You can put oats in so many different things. It’s a handful of health – there are so many benefits.”
The eventual winner of the porridge making championships, Dr Izhar Khan, said: “Liz is a lovely woman, and I love the Scots poetry. It’s so atmospheric.
“It reminded me of the other national dish – the chieftain of the puddin’ race. And we celebrated porridge – the chieftain of the cereal race.
“I often refer to Dr Samuel Johnson, who remarked on a visit to Scotland, ‘In Scotland, they eat what we feed our horses’. I think that the appropriate response to that is if we are eating what you feed your horses, we will be stallions.”