// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Porridge makers from opposite sides of globe triumph in world championship
Dutch champion Gina Saarberg took the coveted Golden Spurtle, while and Australian porridge maestro Rob Reid triumphed in Speciality Porridge category
Two national porridge-making champions from almost opposite sides of the planet have triumphed in the annual world championships held in the Scottish Highlands.
Gina Saarberg, 28, took the coveted Golden Spurtle using the same recipe that saw her crowned Dutch champion in July, using organic pinhead oats, salt and water that she brought with her from the Netherlands.
Australian champion Rob Reid took the speciality award - where competitors can combine oatmeal with any ingredients - with his porridge cannoli, an oaty spin on a tube-shaped dessert that originated in Sicily.
Thirty competitors from 14 countries took part in the contest, held each year at Carrbridge, just north of Aviemore.
What's a golden spurtle and why do so many people want one?
Gina, from Zuthphen, started eating a kind of porridge using rolled oats in her student days because it was a cheap meal.
But she had never tasted the traditional variety until she learned about the Dutch porridge-making contest and decided to enter as a "bit of a joke".
"When I first tasted it, it was a world of difference - I've been missing out all these years," she told BBC Scotland News.
Gina brought her own water to the contest and thinks it may have given her the edge over other contenders