Cooking group fights boredom
A budding young chef is cooking up kitchen challenges and competitions to help keep other children from going stir crazy in lockdown.
Luuka Clark, 11, came up with the idea for a children’s cooking group while trying to alleviate boredom after her school closed.
‘‘I was watching TV. Masterchef Junior was on and I wanted to try out one of the recipes. It got me thinking: why can’t other kids do that, too?’’
So she set up the Masterchef Junior Lockdown Edition NZ Facebook group, with the help of hermumanna Clark, to share recipes, pictures and cooking challenges with other children.
Luuka said hermum, nana and granddad were all cooks, and her grandparents ran The Vault Cafe in Dannevirke, so she had an early start in the kitchen.
‘‘I love cooking and making stuff. And I used to work at [The Vault], too. I got paid and everything.’’
Luuka, from Dannevirke, regularly posts to the group about her culinary experiments and often sets fun challenges for the other children.
A recent one asked them to take the vegetable or food they hated the most and find away to make it tasty. For Luuka, that was kumara and she was pleased with – her coconut-kumera mash, which has become a family dinner favourite.
The Clarks shared links to the group in Tararua community Facebook groups at the start of the lockdown and it now has 155 members – almost all children, who use their own Facebook accounts or their parents’ accounts for the younger ones.
Luuka said it was cool seeing all the tasty foods the other children came up with and she loved trying out their recipes, too.
Her little brother Toby Clark, 8, is keen to eat everything, but less eager to get involved in the kitchen, so he often gets stuck doing the dishes.
Anna Clark said she was proud of her daughter and the support she’s had.
During the first week of lockdown, Bec Adie, of Harcourts Dannevirke and Dannevirke New World, approached the Clarks about sponsoring prizes for competitions.
The first such competition, for the best no-flour baking recipe, finished last week
Dannevirke 5-year-old Winter Gray won that prize for her delicious flourless chocolate cake.
The Clarks hope to grow the group so it becomes nationwide and they’re keen to keep going after the lockdown ends.