Junior Master Chef Rotorua set to challenge little chefs

Local chef Deep Thakur has been working hard to put together the Junior Master Chef Rotorua show. Photo/Shauni James

There will be some heat in the kitchen as little local chefs get out of their cooking comfort zone for a competition.

The Junior Master Chef Rotorua competition will take place on Easter Weekend, March 30 to April 1 at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology.

Organiser and local chef Deep Thakur says the age group for children taking part will be between 9 and 13.

Pre-registration will start January 25 and will run until the end of February. The registration forms will be available from an event website, which will be up on January 24.

He says from the registrations they will be choosing 50 children, who will take part in a simple task on the morning of Friday March 30.

They will then select eight pairs who will take part in a mystery box challenge in the afternoon.

From there, six pairs will be selected to take on a cooking task on Saturday, which will be disclosed on the day.

The Sunday will be the finale, featuring the final two teams.

The winners will receive a Junior Master Chef Rotorua trophy and a $2000 cash prize, as well as cooking one night at Giovanni's Restaurant.

The runners-up will also receive a trophy and a $500 cash prize.

Tickets to see the finale show will be available, but is limited to 100, and will include tasting of the food.

There will be three judges who will be announced closer to the time.

"We want the best kids because they are representing Rotorua and are going to encourage a lot of other kids around the country as well."

Deep says the competition aims to encourage more and more children to cook.

"We know what kids eat nowadays. It's encouraging kids to cook and eat healthier."

He says considering New Zealand is the third most obese country in the world, it is important to teach young ones how to be healthy, and give them options to cook.

Deep says when they started holding cooking classes at Giovanni's he realised many local children are into cooking.

He says they had interest in their classes from 1000 children and the objective of the Junior Master Chef Rotorua show is to raise money to put towards cooking classes.

Deep says the children who have been taking part in the classes are talented and that he gets parents sending in photos from home.

"I have done many cooking demonstrations in schools and can see they just want to learn something new."

If there were people who wanted to get on board and were happy to do volunteer work over the weekend, they could feel free to send him a message through the Junior Master Chef - Rotorua Facebook page.