Magic meal a ticket to TV cook-off
A team of tweens’ cooking skills is about to launch them onto national television.
Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School friends Campion Mcshane, Georgia Morrisrichard, and Jessica Lampp heard about the Maggi Pop Up Kitchen Showdown, got together at lunch time, and put in an entry.
The Palmerston North team were amazed when their recipe for taco cups and salad was chosen for the semi-finals, and landed them a surprise visit at school from a television crew and presenter and Shortland St actor Lucy Elliot.
After the initial excitement of meeting a star and being on television, the three rolled up their sleeves in the school kitchen, put on their aprons, and cooked up a storm to demonstrate their taco cups meal.
To enter, each team had to design their own recipe for a healthy meal for four, that could be cooked in less than 30 minutes and cost less than $20.
Finalists will compete to win in a high-pressure cook-off, filmed as part of the Adam and Eve show in Christchurch.
The video filmed at the school will be aired on the show on August 11, and then three finalist teams will be chosen late September.
‘‘We’re very proud, but shocked - we didn’t have a clue,’’ Georgia said.
They thought up the recipe without any help from adults, and had talked about how to make it healthy and delicious.
‘‘We wanted to have a salad to even out the tortillas, and with the seeds on the salad it makes it more tasty,’’ she said.
Jessica said completing the dish in 30 minutes came down to good team work.
‘‘We all like cooking, and we’re all best friends. We give each other different jobs.’’
The recipe was spicy, with Mexican flavours, and some rich creaminess from the cheese and sour cream, she said. ’’We thought we did a really good job of the presentation, it looks really good.’’