Marvellous Masterchef

Maara Kai Challenge 

- Winners of Best Use of Produce -

Congratulations Kaleyn and Sophia… 

Matawai School is a part of Enviro schools, so with that, we took part in the Maara Kai challenge. Three teams of two cooked their dishes at school but only one team would be picked and take part in the actual event. The first few steps were listing the produce that we had in our gardens to work with, creating a menu using five of the ingredients out of the gardens. Many of our menus were based on dishes that we were familiar with from the cooking room. 

Amy Spence came up to judge and picked Kaleyn and I to head off to Gisborne Intermediate to cook our dish ( pesto pasta with crunchy kale chips and apple, feijoa and rhubarb crumble) against other schools. 

As soon as we arrived we were welcomed with a special Waiata and greeting from some of the teachers and students. Then it was off for a safety briefing in the cooking room. Before we knew it, the time had started and we were cooking. We had ninety minutes to create our dishes, clean up and present nicely. It sounds like a lot of time, but in the last 15 minutes, everything was quite a rush. While the dishes were been judged, we went outside to visit Gisborne Intermediate’s gardens. They had a huge paddock full of produce. After the judges were making their final decisions, we tasted each other's meal. There was everything, from homemade breads to orange and kale crumble. One team had even made a delicious goat curry. The judges thought that our use of produce was very creative, so we were given the title of ‘ best use of produce ‘. It was such a fun experience and we would love to give it a go again.  

Sophia Carmiachael