Matt held his own, even while being interviewed.
Our team can hardly believe that we won the coveted Golden Spurtle; the prize awarded for the best traditional porridge in the world. We spent most of the night celebrating with pints at the local pub. Today it became real, as the phone began ringing for interviews and the Scottish paper announced that the Americans had won the honor of having the best porridge in the world.
Yesterday our nerves ran wild as we prepared for the competition. My hands shook as I cut pears and measured out oats, water, salt. There were so many fabulous people competing that we immediately felt out of place and knew we’d be lucky to make it into the finals. What struck me immediately was how friendly everyone was. We were all nervously prepping for the competition and joking with one another to break the tension. Everyone was bonded together in our nervous chatter and sharing recipes was just another way to calm our nerves.
Finally, the time came for Matt to take the stage. As we shuffled everything for our Oregon Orchard Oat Brule and traditional oats onto the stage, I knew all the months of hard work was finally to be tested. This was it.
Matt preformed fabulously under the judges’ scrutiny and finished with 3 minutes to spare- far more than any practice session had yielded. I knew he had preformed well, but we were up against some very strong competition. After the allotted time, the judges announced those who would make it into the final round. The final round would consist only of the traditional oats; the winner of the specialty oats category, presumably, having already been chosen. Those few seconds stretched on for an eternity as the judge announced first one name, then another, and so on. When the fourth name was announced, I felt momentarily dismayed until he uttered the last number- 5, Matthew Cox. Of fourteen competitors, we had made it to the finals.
Here, I breathed a sigh of relief. While we wanted to win, we were content to make it into the finals. We scrambled to get Matt ready for the finals and watched as he prepared yet another batch of traditional oats. When he finally plated his oats the nervous wait began.
Anna-Louise Bachelor and Matt Cox: World Porridge Champions
After what felt like hours, but was only minutes, the judges had chosen the winner of the specialty category- Anna-Louise Bachelor with her Steamed Porridge Spotted Dick with Custard. Our hopes were perceptibly dashed. I was ready to call it a day and move on. When the judge announced Matt as the winner of the traditional oats category and the Golden Spurtle Champion, it took a moment to digest that we had won. How had we come all this way and actually won??
From there it has been a whirlwind of photographers and journalists. What an honor to win the traditional oats category. While we worked so hard to perfect our specialty oats, this award means far more to us. Our oats won this award. Thank you for all of your support. Over the next few days, we will post links to our pictures and videos.
Thank you, again, from your friends at Bob’s Red Mill
Team Bob's Red Mill: (left to right) Marie Gilliam, Ashley Cox, Dennis Gilliam, Matt Cox, Cassidy Stockton, Andy Stockton
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Well done Matthew. You truly deserved to win as your plated Porridge was clearly the best in the final round. I look forward to seeing all of team Bob’s Red Mill again next year and I very much hope Bob himself will be in attendance.
Congrats from all at Joy Creek! Good for you all, enjoy basking in the glory!
way to bring glory to Oregon! So proud of you and, of course, the judges were “spot on” in their decision!
Wow! I just came home from Disneyland and read the article in the Sunday paper. I came in to look it up on the computer and I was thrilled that you had won!Congratulations! We are so lucky to live in Milwaukie. How about the recipe?
Congratulations Matt! Be careful with that spurtle!
I am so proud of you all!
Congrats – what a great accomplishment!
I become a staunch fan of Bob’s Red Mill cereal after finding out that Bob Moore gave his employees full ownership of his company in February of this year. I thought his product must be good for Bob to be that honest and caring! So, I immediately ordered some. My favorite of all is the organic whole grain high fiber hot cereal which I can only find online. I’ve shipped bags of this cereal to all my family members, touting it as the most nutritional and healthiest cereal I’ve ever found. So, I’m thrilled that Bob’s Red Mill has won the world title of the best traditional oats! Congrats to everyone at Bob’s Red Mill, y’all deserve it!