Ten finalists to compete for the 2009 Shoprite Checkers Championship Boerewors Crown!

Eighty-seven of the country’s best boerewors-makers battled it out on 19 September in the provincial rounds of this year’s Shoprite Checkers Championship Boerewors competition. And now finally, after a period of 4 months during which more than 1100 boereworsmakers went through 2 elimination rounds, and 342 judges tasted some 44 000 pieces of boerewors, the day has come when the new Boerewors Champion will be chosen.

Ten provincial winners will be travelling to Sun City for the much anticipated grand finale that takes place in the Valley of Waves on 3 October where the winner will drive away with a brand new Toyota Hilux 2.7 Double Cab Raised Body Raider and the much sought after 2009 Boerewors crown! 

The ten finalists for the Sun City Grand Finale are:

• Eastern Cape - John Miller, who was also a finalist in the 2007 Championship Boerewors Competition, works in the vehicle spare parts department of a local distributor in Port Elizabeth
• Free State - Frances Pelser is a homemaker from Kroonstad.
• Gauteng - Markus Stander is an administrative supervisor at steel works in Germiston
• Gauteng – Johan Botha is a block man at a butchery in Vereeniging. 
• KwaZulu-Natal - Bennie Nothnagel resides in Durban and is a meat specialist for a supermarket group.
• Limpopo - Kobus Nel is the butchery manager at a fresh foods retailer in Louis Trichardt.
• Mpumalanga – Victor Lourens is a trainee manager at Shoprite Nelspruit.
• North West - Annetjie Fourie is a Meat Market manager at Shoprite Brits in Pienaar Street.
• Northern Cape - Elizabeth Lesley is a housewife from Kuruman. Elizabeth participated at Sun City as a finalist in the 2007 and 2008 Championship Boerewors Competitions.
• Western Cape - Deon Stassen is a Meat Market manager at Shoprite Beaufort Wes. Since the inception this competition 17 years ago, Deon has participated every year except one and has made it to the provincial round 6 times.

Top food experts Martin Kobald (award winning chef and Honorary President of the SA Chefs Association), Peter Veldsman (author of several cookbooks and owner of Emily’s Restaurant), Carmen Niehaus (YOU and Huisgenoot Food Editor), Dorah Sitole (accomplished travel, nutrition and food writer, cordon bleau chef and editor of True Love magazine); Reuben Riffel (Chef de Cuisine and co-owner Reuben’s Restaurant); and Arnold Tanzer (Sunday Times Chef of the Year 2008) will act as official judges during the final at Sun City. 
The 2009 Shoprite Checkers Championship Boerewors will receive the South African Chefs Association’s Seal of Approval, ensuring that South Africa’s best loved boerewors is the best of the very best! 

Brumilda van Rensburg and Johan Rademan will be the compères for the day. Brumilda is a favourite of the South African public for her role as Louwna in the long-running M-Net soapie, Egoli and has appeared in several acclaimed theatre productions. Radio presenter, journalist, commentator and producer Johan Rademan, joined Radio Sonder Grense (RSG) in 1984 and currently presents programmes such as the travel programme Bon Voyage, the medical programme Wat sê die Dokter, and Oggend op RSG. 

This year Huisgenoot Musiekplaas will also join in the excitement of the Championship Boerewors Finale, providing top class entertainment with exceptional South African musical talent such as Jason Hartman, Broers (Christo, Cobus and Nic Snyman), Cheree Large, Jakkie Louw & Band, Karlien Husselman, Gerhard Steyn, Willem Botha, Zak van Niekerk and Graeme Watkins. 

Shoprite and Checkers is proud of South Africa’s boerewors heritage and to celebrate this the supermarket group annually hosts the Championship Boerewors Competition which searches for the country’s best traditional boerewors recipe. The group is renowned for the excellent quality of the meat available at their Meat Markets and they are continuously looking for new recipes and ideas in order to offer customers the best. The annual Boerewors Championship is instrumental in achieving that goal. 

Those who will not have the opportunity to taste the supermarket group’s new Championship Boerewors at Sun City will fortunately not have to wait too long to obtain it. From 14 October this product will be available under the 2009 Championship Boerewors label in the Meat Markets at Shoprite, Checkers and Checkers Hyper stores country-wide. 

For more information on winners, prizes and competition events visit the Championship Boerewors web site: www.championshipboerewors.co.za.