Serving up a delicious menu of butternut dumplings with spinach, butternut seed pesto and paprika butternut skin chips at the Rabobank Root to Tip regionals. Photo / Supplied
Serving up a delicious menu of butternut dumplings with spinach, butternut seed pesto and paprika butternut skin chips at the Rabobank Root to Tip regionals. Photo / Supplied
Butternut dumplings with spinach, butternut seed pesto and paprika butternut skin chips.
It's a dish most adults couldn't perfect.
Te Mata Primary students Francesca Vial and Hannah Newman did it proud, and it booked them a spot in the finals of Rabobank Root to Tip cooking competition.
Francesca's mother Briony said getting into the finals for the 9-year-old was "like a dream".
The Year 5 duo made it to the finals against the odds as initially they almost lost their chance to compete due to a lack of entries from Hawke's Bay.
However, the judges believed their dishes were worthy and subsequently invited them to cook in the Manawatu regional final at Manawatu College, on August 3, and they won.
Briony said she was very excited for the duo, who had been practicing the dishes together.
Judge Lenore Winterburn from Horowhenua Learning Centre's chef training and hospitality school in Levin with the happy winning duo, Francesca Vial and Hannah Newman. Photo / Supplied
"They decided to try their hand at dumplings and ravioli and they wanted to make their own pasta."
After a lot of trial and error, they perfected the dishes.
For Briony, watching the two cook in Manawatu College was exciting as well as nerve-wracking.
"It was also stressful, because you have seen them cook the dishes before but you can't say anything to guide them."
For now the duo will be fine-tuning their dishes separately and together before they compete in the finals in WelTec, Wellington, on August 23.
Supported by the Garden to Table trust, the Rabobank Root to Tip competition is for kids in Years 5 and 6 tasked with creating two vegetarian dishes, using locally-sourced produce, and using as much of the product as possible, as part of the contest is judged on the amount of food waste created.
The overall winning team of the Root to Tip competition will receive a one-year free membership to the Garden to Table programme for their school.
Additionally each child in the team will win a Rabobank Noticesaver account with $1000 provided by Rabobank, a signed copy of Al Brown's cookbook, a House of Knives chef's knife set, and a Southern Hospitality Waring stick Blender.
