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Porridge is a way of life in this Scottish town. An Australian helped to capture it on film
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Porridge is a way of life in this Scottish town. An Australian helped to capture it on film

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Tucked away in the Scottish Highlands lies Carrbridge, a town that most people wouldn’t even know existed if it weren’t for its strange claim to fame: the World Porridge Making Championship
There is no prize money. Just a gold trophy in the shape of a spurtle – a traditional Scottish utensil for stirring oats – and the glory of being crowned the world’s best porridge maker.
Sydney-based taco chef Toby Wilson was researching obscure food competitions when he came across The Golden Spurtle. He had already found a roadkill cooking competition in West Virginia, USA, a fondue championship and even one for testicles.
But it was a quiet moment over a bowl of oats that inspired him to look for a porridge-making competition – and eventually fly to Carrbridge to take part.
“They say there are 700 residents, but it feels like you only see 30,” Wilson told SBS News.

“I like to collect strange experiences,” he says. “I’m a collector of these big fish and small pond experiences. I thought it would be fun to say I’m the World Porridge Champion.”

Sydneysider taco chef Toby Wilson made the trip to Carrbridge and cooked twice in the competition. On his first attempt, he claims he came second. Source: Delivered

The first time he competed, Wilson finished in the top six. Or possibly second, depending on who you ask. “I was told I came second, but I couldn’t verify that. But I just assume that’s the case.”

A year later he returned to compete again. This time he brought along Melbourne-based writer and director Constantine Costi – who was making his first film – to help document the community that had unexpectedly charmed him.
That film, The Golden Spurtle, has been on a journey around the world ever since. The film is screening at the Sydney Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival, CPH:DOX, the Telluride Film Festival and has even had a theatrical release in the UK.

The film will also be released in Australian cinemas on December 11.

Dad people

Admittedly, porridge is not the most exciting food. It’s just three ingredients: oats, water and a dash of salt.

But in the town of Carrbridge – located in the northeast of Scotland and just an hour’s drive from the British royal family residence Balmoral Castle – it represents much more.

It’s funny because it’s such a boring dish, but all the people are so fascinating.

“One of the previous winners has it tattooed on his arm,” says Wilson.
The competition attracts an eclectic crowd. Among them: Adam Kiani, a research coordinator for fungi and mycology; Nick Barnard, a wellness CEO determined to win; and reigning world champion Lisa Williams, by whom Wilson was “weirdly impressed”.

“There were people I had read about who had won previous years… they’re like pap icons,” he says.

When it comes to the judging criteria, one judge, Neil Mugg, says good taste, color and texture are crucial.
But everyone has their own technique. Some competitors are waiting for a lumpy bubble to guide them. Others, like Williams, rely on sound. Wilson says he used to be an avid stirrer, but now lets the oats “do their thing.”
He says there is a superstition that you should stir clockwise to keep evil spirits at bay (and he does this, just in case).

“I’m a chef by trade, so I feel like I should be good at this,” he says.

‘You don’t get that in Marrickville’

For Wilson, the experience turned out to be more than just a quirky travel story.
“I got two big things out of it,” he says. “The first was how much attention I could put into mastering a simple dish. The second was the community.”
Wilson, who lives in Sydney’s western suburb of Marrickville – named Australia’s second coolest neighborhood by Time Out in 2022 – says it was nice to be part of a small community where everyone knows each other and looks out for each other.
“Their differences didn’t really matter,” he says.
“I don’t even know my neighbors back home, and you’re in this town and everyone remembered me.
“You don’t get that in Marrickville.”
Although many Carrbridge residents are older, he says the generation gap doesn’t seem to matter.

“I was between a 50-year-old and a 70-year-old, and literally the only thing we had in common was that we cooked oats.”

We’re the kind of people who see something like the World Porridge Making Championship and say, f–k, that sounds fun.

Aesthetically, The Golden Spurtle it looks as if it has been plucked from a BBC archive or is playing on an analogue television.
Cinematographer Dimitri Zaunders opts for slow pans, color and symmetry and douses the film with Wes Anderson-esque petroleum. The documentary reflects that spirit. It is gentle, slightly absurd and warm.
Director and writer Costi – who has a background in opera – says Dad is simply a ‘Trojan Horse’ to tell the stories of the beautiful people in the Carrbridge community.
“The message for me was: How can something so seemingly basic on the palette be even vaguely interesting?” says Costi.
The answer was in the people.

There’s Barbara, head dishwasher for 25 years; Chris Price, the railwayman who makes porridge “the Scottish way, with water”; the Pap Committee; a pack of proud dishwashers; and Neal Robertson, the aforementioned tattooed former world champion.

A man flexes his bicep with a tattoo on it.

Neal Robertson is a two-time winner of the Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship. He even got a tattoo in honor of the occasion. Source: Delivered

We also see Roger Reed, who founded the league in 1994 and helped put Carrbridge on the map. There is even a street in the city named after him.

“I was looking for an idea to promote the village,” Reed says in the film. “And it occurred to me: porridge, the epitome of Scottish food. Can you turn porridge-making into a competition?”
Although they are all different, there are a few common characteristics of the Carrbridge people: they are naturally witty, they usually have gray hair and they are very serious about their porridge.
“The fun part was that I got to know a whole group of older people and built relationships with strangers over a certain age,” says Costi.

‘There’s a sparkle in their eyes. They’re all in on the joke.’

“What would you do with your last years?”

At the center of this is Charlie Miller – porridge maker, sprint carver and leader of the competition for many years. As his health deteriorates, Miller struggles with who will take over his role.
Costi thought this could become the emotional backbone of the film. But before filming began, Miller casually revealed that he had already found a replacement.

“It’s just Alan down the road,” he told Costi.

A man opening the doors of a church.

The documentary follows Charlie Miller’s final year as leader of the league. It quickly turns into a meditation on aging, legacy and purpose. Source: Delivered

Instead, the film turns into a meditation on aging, legacy, and purpose.

“On the surface it’s light and comical and vibrant and a bit cheerful. But there’s a more poignant undercurrent to the whole thing, especially with Charlie, who isn’t in the best of health,” says Costi.
But even as he struggles to hang up his metaphorical apron, Miller still drops wisdom in every scene, with lines that feel plucked straight from a Dylan Thomas poem.
The film opens with a montage of the sights of Carrbridge: a rock bridge, the train station, the pub – and the cemetery. “Everyone ends up here,” Miller says, looking over the headstones.
The Scottish Highlands are aging faster than the rest of the country. But in Carrbridge this is not positioned as a problem; it’s part of the charm.

You notice it in the rhythm of the city, the cheeky chatter of the committee and in the slow beauty of the film itself. There is something particularly reassuring about a place where older people are not only visible, but center stage: running races, cutting sprints, washing dishes, stirring oats.

As the proportion of people aged 60 and over increases worldwide, the United Nations is promoting the need for ‘age-friendly communities’ that optimize opportunities for health, participation and safety, to improve people’s quality of life as they age.

In Carrbridge, the porridge competition may play a crucial role in building this sense of community. And while Miller is stepping down, the committee is asking him to stay on as honorary chief – complete with new hat and all.

There is a deep human story underneath all of this that we all have to deal with at some point, namely: what should I do with my final years?

Constantine Costi, director of The Golden Spurtle

“Is something as absurd as a porridge-making competition worth doing? I would say it absolutely is,” says Costi.
Wilson agrees, though he says he’s probably done competing.
“I think you should make it an annual tradition — at what point does that get a little weird? It’s like, how much do you want to win this porridge prize, dude?” he says.
Still, he got a glimpse of what those later years might be like.
“I am a keen but terrible amateur golfer and Scotland is the birthplace of golf.
‘So for a few days [while making the film]I would just make porridge and play golf.
“It felt like a little taste of my later years: cooking porridge and playing golf in a seaside town in Scotland.”
The Golden Spurtle hits Australian cinemas on December 11.

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