Tasty homework pays off for trio
A trio of prizewinning young chefs have had plenty of family support for their homework.
Ha¯ wera High School students Tarryn Ogle, Nina Devlin and Kate Mackay, all 15, spent two months honing their cooking skills at home and at school to be ready for Monday’s Taranaki Hospitality Competitions.
Their diligence paid off, with Tarryn getting a gold medal for her pasta dish using tri-colour vera pasta and truffle cream.
Nina won silver with her salmon with salsa and an apple and spinach roulade while Kate got a bronze with her cheese omelette, a dish her dad had tastetested.
‘‘Dad loves a good omelette, so yep, he liked my dish,’’ said Kate.
‘‘I like cooking for the family, you talk, make some good creations to eat – food and family, that’s good,’’ said Tarryn, who enjoyed the chance to see what it was like cooking competitively on her own.
‘‘We are used to cooking together and this time we had to cook alone.’’
The three cooked together at Womad in March with chef Jax Hamilton, Masterchef NZ runner up of 2011, having won the opportunity at the TSB Community Trust Cook-Off at Witt earlier that month. The students haven’t decided if they will pursue careers in hospitality, but all were keen to compete again.
Hospitality teacher Koren Millar said she was very proud of her students’ successes.
‘‘Last year was my first time to take a team and we only got merits so I was keen to beat that this year,’’ she said.
The competition was held at the Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki, with students from various secondary schools and 10 international WITT students taking part.