Team Braai-B-Que make South Africa proud
"We've had so much fun and support from people here. So many highlights for us, like being on national television, having people come to the competitions just to see us and our cute little mascot, Barbie (piglet), it's been amazing,"
TEAM Braai-B-Que have recently returned from another successful trip to the United States, representing South Africa in several cooking and barbecue competitions.
The team, comprised of “Borries” Bornman, “Braaiboy”, John Grundlingh and Allan Ridley, held their own against some stiff competition and already enjoy a pretty impressive fan base in America and amongst the other teams.
At the American Royal World Series of BBQ (barbecue), they were certainly one of the crowd favorites from the 700 teams from around the world that took part.
The World Food Championships, with 20 teams from 12 countries competing, saw the team place seventh and 10th in two categories.
“We’ve had so much fun and support from people here. So many highlights for us, like being on national television, having people come to the competitions just to see us and our cute little mascot, Barbie (piglet), it’s been amazing,” adds Alberton food expert and chef, Borries.
The team travelled around three thousand miles (roughly 4 830 kilometres) in their RV (recreational vehicle), which was organised for them by a local and fellow barbecue fundi, Rick Morris, fondly referred to as the “American Braai Father” by the team.
“It was such a nice feeling to receive the kind of help that we did. It was quite an adventure, because the RV is from 1987 and we had some challenges, because at times we were in danger of having to push it to get any further,” laughs Borries. “We eventually discovered that the fuel tank was dirty and we had to replace petrol filters twice a day just to be able to make any progress,” he adds.
For those curious about what happened to the team’s beloved mascot, Barbie, Borries assures us that she did not meet a grizzly fate and end up on the barbecue, but instead got adopted by one of their rival (but friendly) teams who are locally (America) based.
