A huge congratulations to the winning combination of Aylah Thomson and Caitlyn Clark who recieved top marks in the final that was contested this week. Abby Cherry finished up in second place which was a brilliant effort considering she was a solo entry. Ethan Winter-Clarke & Ray Watkin-Lemalu narrowly missed out on a place in the finals but were thoroughly deserving of third place.

Kererū's most enthusiasstic chefs have battled it out over the past couple of weeks and were all judged on a set list of criteria. 

To even be considered for entry, the contestants had to sign up.They would enter as a head chef and sous chef combo with their recipe idea clearly labeled. Next step was to write and submit their recipe ensuring it had detailed instructions as well as including the science element to their dish. If that wasn't enough pressure they were also expected to cost up their recipe as we had a strict budget of $10 per entry.

As a result this eliminated quite a few entries from the get go. A harsh reality into the real world maybe?

Once we had announced the successful chefs we proceeded with the 1st round. Each day of the competition we had two entries cook and present their dish to the panel of teacher judges. We scored their recipe on the following criteria: Presentation, Taste, Food Science, and Inventiveness. I can tell you that we did not mind sampling what the competitors presented us! Every dish was a triumph and everyone who entered should be thrilled with how they went.

Caitlyn and Aylah made the most delightful cookie dough ice-cream. Abby made her nanna's recipe of Scrumptious scroodles that were moreish, and Ray and Ethan made a Big Mac burger with a home made pickle that was scrumptious! These are our top three!

In the final, the top two placed teams were challenged even further, this time they had zero prep time and had to replicate a recipe cooked by Mr Brolan. They had no recipe to follow so they had to be observant and trust their instinct. The recipe they had to cook was a one pan flatbread that was filled with cheese, ham, mustard, pickled veg, and kale from our garden. Super quick and easy but imagine the most melt in your mouth cheese toastie but you are making the bread from scratch! Aylah and Caitlin's flatbread was voted the best by a very thin margin but both were absolutely delicious. Very proud of you three!

A huge thank you to New World who donated vouchers since we participated in their Food For Thought Programme earlier in the year. We will make sure they know we put these vouchers to good use! An even bigger thanks to our amazing learning assistant Helen Sparks who endured all the kid's nerves and supervised the whole event. We could not have run this without you Helen! You are amazing.