Young cooks step up at Culinary Fare

More than 500 secondary school and tertiary students took to the kitchen at Wintec's Centre for Hospitality, Rotokauri campus last week to battle it out in the annual Waikato Culinary Fare.

In its 13th year, the fare promotes cooking as a career and aims to nurture young talent. Innovative challenges included creating cupcakes, creative pizzas, Māori kai and cocktails along with knife-skills, mystery box challenges and a table-setting competition.

This year saw a record number of entries with 510 including Wintec, New Zealand Management Academies and Toi-Ohomai Institute of Technology students as well as representation from 22 high schools, with teams travelling from as far as Rotorua, Whakatane, Taumarunui, Whitianga and Auckland.

Waikato Diocesan School for Girls took out the Waikato Top School Award, while Te Awamutu College took home the National Secondary School Culinary Challenge Team Award and first year Wintec Culinary Arts student Sari Leah Steed (pictured) was awarded Novotel Tainui Hamilton – Junior Hospitality Student Waikato.