On the weekend, Lennora Niemand and Sammy Westenberg of our Vereeniging XtraSpace branch represented XtraSpace at the 2015 Stonehaven Potjiekos & Mampoer Festival. Last year, XtraSpace scooped first place in the competition – so the pressure was on!
Team XtraSpace – Lennora and Sammy
On the weekend, Lennora Niemand and Sammy Westenberg of our Vereeniging XtraSpace branch represented XtraSpace at the 2015 Stonehaven Potjiekos & Mampoer Festival.
Last year, XtraSpace scooped first place in the competition – so the pressure was on! Lennora and Sammy knew they were responsible for defending our title.
All the competitors in the event draw a number to determine which main ingredient they’d be cooking on the day – lamb, brisket, bully beef, biltong and sausage, turkey, seafood, fish, curry lamb or venison.
Our team drew lucky number 5, for…TURKEY. Goodness! Our XtraSpace team members weren’t familiar at all with the ins and outs of cooking turkey, which can be a tough meat to cook with.
Because both turkey and bully beef are challenging ingredients, the teams assigned these ingredients were given 5 points as a head start. Lennora and Sammy calmly worked together, finding a recipe with the help of Google and gathering, washing and chopping all the ingredients for a potjie. Once everything was in the pot, the cooking could begin.
The judges for the event, including a well-known South African chef and two food connoisseurs, circulated while the teams cooked their potjies, asking questions and checking up on everyone’s progress.
When the teams were ready and glorious smells were coming from everyone’s potjies, it was judging time. Lennora and Sammy presented their creation and steeled their nerves. Then came the announcement of the first, second, and third places.
Can you believe it? It was an awesome feeling when the announcer declared that the lucky winner of the 2015 Potjiekos and Mampoer Festival was…number 5, for XtraSpace!
Proud XtraSpace team scoops first place
Well done team XtraSpace, for winning the competition for the second year running – and congratulations to all the other teams, who made the event such a fun and memorable experience. We’ll see you all next year!