The Enviroschools Māra Kai Masterchef Challenge has proved to be a hit, with 9 schools creating beautiful dishes in 90 minutes…
Teams consisting of two gardeners and two cooks were challenged to create a delicious meal from ingredients they had cultivated themselves.
Each team had 90 minutes to complete the challenge and were expected to plate and present their dishes to the judges.
The tension mounts as tamariki wait to have their dishes judged!
The final dish was required to include at least five ingredients from each teams’ school vegetable garden, and they were also expected to discuss their dish and describe to judges how the five ingredients were grown.
Judging the event was Amy Spence, owner of Black Fig catering, and chef Jana Gibson. “It’s amazing to see the calibre of cooking, which has been so high,” said Ms Spence. “The winning team made a Korean dish with venison they had sourced themselves and made samosas from scratch, which is so impressive.”
Tairawhiti Enviroschools facilitator Kirsty Gaddum said the focus was on promoting environmentally-sustainable practices for school students.
“It’s so inspirational to see kids empowered by growing, harvesting, and cooking healthy, delicious food. The standard was so high it was amazing.” – Enviroschools Facilitator, Kirsty Gaddum.
Ms Spence said it was encouraging to see how well supported this initiative was by so many schools. “Students have created the most amazing gardens at their schools and it is really cool to see kids getting involved beyond it just being a subject.”
The event was held at Gisborne Intermediate School and attended by students from participating schools in the Gisborne region.
Original article credit: Gisborne Herald
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