Durban - The Springboks will be powered by the smell of Heritage Day braaing when they kick off their rugby test match against Argentina in Durban at 5pm today.
Braai connoisseur Jan Scannell, who is widely known as Jan Braai, and his team are heading to the stadium where they will cook up a storm over coals during the match.
“It’s the word of nose campaign,” he says.
He has also expressed a special thanks to Eskom, saying since the beginning of September, it has consistently switched off the electricity to give people time to practice their braai skills in the run-up to Heritage Day.
Braai is an auditor who started the National Braai Day campaign in 2005 because he wanted to build bridges between South Africans with the one thing everyone loves to do, braai.
He says in the first two years, the campaign didn't get much traction, but in 2007, he enlisted the support of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and suddenly he had the world’s attention.
“That was life-changing. He had a good sense of humour, but he didn't laugh the idea off,” said Braai.
They had a joint news conference about National Braai Day, which was attended by the world’s media, and he’s never looked back.
Six recipe books later and with the updated version of The Democratic Republic of Braai now on the shelves, he says the campaign has gone from strength to strength.
In addition, he has a range of boerewors, braai sauces and braai equipment to his name.
He came up with the concept of National Braai Day so that South Africans could have a day of celebration and talking while doing the one activity they all have in common, regardless of race, language, gender or wealth.
Braai says he “does not live under a rock” and knows that not everyone is in favour of braai day. However, this has not deterred him because he says whatever you do, someone will always be negative.
He says the difference between his idea and those of others was that he turned it into reality.
Today, he has a thriving business which takes him all over the world, marketing the concept of braai day. He will be attending the Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, next.
The updated edition of The Democratic Republic of Braai features a selection of new recipes and is more “sophisticated”, he said.
Some of the recipes include heritage T-bone steak with pinotage sauce, the braai freedom fighter burger, revolution chicken, democratic lamb salad and rainbow nation roti.
Since he started National Braai Day, he has been on many cooking courses, which he then adapted to cooking on a fire.
Braai said he wanted braaing to be an aspirational thing where people see fire and coals as just another energy source which could be used to make anything.
“My focus is to get people to think of braaing differently, where it's not just chops and wors and steak. It's cooking amazing food on a fire because a fire adds caramelisation and smoky flavour to it.”
In addition, attending a braai in South Africa should be on the bucket list of every tourist, he said.
The Independent on Saturday