Kerikeri High school students, Savanna Munro and Kiera Matich, are returning to their school with a huge trophy, a new oven and $1000 of Bidfood vouchers after winning the grand final of the 2022 National Secondary School Culinary Challenge.
The girls went up against seven other regional teams from across New Zealand in a live kitchen challenge at Manukau Institute of Technology in Auckland on September 7, impressing the judges with their cooking innovation and kitchen techniques at a level considered of restaurant standard.
With just 90 minutes and the clock ticking faster than the girls had hoped, they managed to create four servings of an entrée where beetroot was the hero of the plate and four mains featuring a Waitoa Chicken supreme cut accompanied by four vegetables and a starch.
Their dishes –an entrée featuring beetroot-cured kingfish with a beetroot curry and beetroot pear chutney wrapped in pickled beetroot, golden beetroot and miso purée, and finished with horseradish and garden herbs.
For their winning main course, pictured below, an aromatic curry with coconut sauce, baby onions, carrots and herb pickled kumara transformed the chicken into an Asian-style dish bursting with flavour.
Prior to starting the challenge, Savanna and Keira said that they were nervous but excited to reach the grand final and represent their school. The look of surprise and smiles on their faces when they were announced the winners said just how much they had put into the challenge. “It’s amazing, so exciting,” said Savanna while Keira couldn’t wait to tell her family they had won.
Second place went to Botany Downs Secondary College team, Wei-Zen Chan and Ashley Hewlett.
Chief judge Mark Wylie congratulated all the teams at the Awards Dinner that evening. “You are the best of the best! By making it through to the grand final you are the best secondary school culinary students in New Zealand right now and you should be very proud of what you’ve achieved.”
He also praised their culinary teachers, coaches and supporters: “The calibre of the entries we saw today is a direct reflection of the effort and commitment you put in to these students. And every year, thanks to you, the benchmark is raised.”
He said an important part of preparing for the challenge was for the students to consult with the hospitality industry. That became evident in that no two dishes presented for judging were even remotely similar. Each dish was innovative, unique, with some top technical skills used such as making pasta in a live competition, and plating up with precision.
During the challenge the students were referred to as chefs. “We’re judging aspiring chefs. They may be secondary school students but they have excellent trainers, and we hope they go on to careers in the industry, because our industry needs talented people like these students now more than ever before.”
Mark said he was stoked with the outcome of the challenge. “To hold this for the first time in two years is enormously satisfying. To see what it means to these students to compete here, that’s the best validation you can get.”
Guest judge, Peter Wright, Pacific Rim Continental Director for World Chefs summed up the challenge by saying: “As an ambassador for World Chefs and seeing what we’ve seen today, it was overwhelming how organised, how entertaining the whole competition was, the energy in the room was just electrifying and the results were amazing. The coaching that goes into that, you’ve got to take your hat off to all those people behind the scenes, but at the end you could see the relief, the excitement and the happiness that ‘we’ve actually done it’ on the faces of the competitors. I did feel I had to go around and congratulate everyone and say ‘well done, great team work. I would hire you all tomorrow.”
And the last word goes to Savanna and Keira: “We want to thank our families for encouraging us to do this and our coaches Stacey and Neil for making it happen.”
