Lynette Louw

Tos Nel again showed that his wors is the best! He was the regional winner in the Shoprite Checkers Championship Boerewors Competition held on August 14.

Not only did Tos walk away as the winner of the regional round held at Shoprite Barberton, but with a second unique recipe also managed to grab second place! Kobus Pieterse, from Nelspruit was third.

With his win Tos received R1 200 Shoprite or Checkers meat vouchers and gift hampers from Coca Cola, All Gold and Simba as first prize. He will now go through to the provincial round which will be held on September 18 in Nelspruit.

Tos told Barberton Times that he started to experiment with boerewors recipes in 2004 when Crown National hosted a competition. He was then manager of the butchery in Shoprite Barberton. He won the competition and then entered in the Shoprite Checkers competition. That was the first year that he participated and made it to the final round at Sun City. With the exception of 2007 he has participated in the competition every year and always made it through to the provincial rounds. He did however not compete in 2007 but his son Hannes did and made it to the finals with one of Tos’s recipes.

According to a press release from Lise-Marie Greeff-Villet, Shoprite, 11 regional competitors from Barberton and surrounding areas had to bring and braai one kilogram of their own secret recipe boerewors which was judged raw and cooked. “The independent judging panel consisting of representatives from the South African Chefs Association had a very difficult time in choosing the winning Boerewors, which demonstrates the high quality of products that were entered for this year’s competition,” she said.

The remaining regional rounds will take place on August 21 and 28 countrywide. The competition ends on October 2 when ten provincial winners get together at Sun City for the grand cook-off to establish who will wear the 2010 Boerewors Crown.

The winning recipe will be on the shelves of all Shoprite, Checkers and Checkers Hyper stores by October 14.

Lise-Marie said Shoprite Checkers 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 group presents the Championship Boerewors challenge annually to assist them in achieving that goal.”

Asked if he like boerewors Tos immediate reaction was: “No, I don’t even want to eat when I get home and my wife has boerewors on the table for supper!”

Tos Nel