THE GOLDEN SPURTLE

Watch The Trailer

Storyline (warning: spoilers)

The word “porridge” evokes something modest and satisfying: mouthfuls of reliable pleasantness in a terribly volatile world. How lovely that The Golden Spurtle – Constantine Costi’s charming documentary about the world’s annual porridge-making championship in the Scottish village of Carrbridge – has assumed some of the qualities of the dish. It isn’t flashy but, like a good ol’ fashioned bowl of well-cooked oats, it’s got it where it counts.
This film is a pleasure to watch – with endearing salt-of-the-earth subjects, a lovely ebb and flow, and a tone that feels just right: neither overly serious nor tongue in cheek. Sometimes it’s just nice to escape into a fresh air-filled world with refreshingly low stakes. Even if the competitors, gawd luv ’em, treat the competition very seriously.
Early moments introduce places in and around Carrbridge – including a pub and a cemetery – before we meet competitors and people of note in the world of rolled oats. They include the Australian taco chef Toby Wilson, who packs up a portable kitchen and flies with it across the world, and is competing against the likes of Nick Barnard, the co-founder of a wholesome food company who is “burning with desire” to triumph after having made the finals several times.
Momentum builds in the lead-up to the big day, when crowds pack into Carrbridge’s modest community hall, where, for some reason, a whisky-tasting event is also taking place.
People involved in The Golden Spurtle tend to, quite adorably, emphasise their own importance: one of the kitchen crew assures us, with a cheeky wee gleam in her eyes, that this is “the boiler house of the world porridge championships”, where all the important action takes place.
It’s all very sweet and agreeable: a palate-pleasing celebration of the noble oat.