AIMAN AMERUL MUNER/Stuff
Mountainview High School’s Latisha Put, left, with teacher Tess Taylor and fellow student Taylor Happer are preparing for the National Secondary Schools Culinary Competition in Auckland after winning the regional section for their beetroot tart entrée.
Two Timaru teenagers’ culinary skills have earned them a spot in the grand final of a national secondary schools culinary challenge.
Mountainview High School students Latisha Put and Tyler Happer, both 15, won the Tasman, Marlborough and Canterbury regional section of the National Secondary Schools Culinary Competition, and alongside their teacher, Tess Taylor, are now fundraising to contest the grand final in Auckland.
The pair had to make an entrée using beetroot for the regional final, choosing to make a beetroot tart.
The students have since become good friends, spending many hours in and out of school preparing for the regional finals, and their teacher said she is “very proud” of them.
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“They have always shown a real enthusiasm for food right from the beginning.
“Right away, I could see a passion in them, they both would ask for things they could work on at home.
“I am so proud, I am over the moon that they got into the finals,” Taylor said.
AIMAN AMERUL MUNER/Stuff
Latisha Put and Tyler Happer, both 15, have become good friends after spending a lot of time together preparing for the contest.
Both students credit their Nanas for their interest in cooking, watching them when they were younger.
“I kept going in food technology because I wanted to learn how to cook and to do it well,” Happer said.
When asked what her favourite thing to make was, without hesitation Happer said self-saucing pudding.
Happer and Put said they are “grateful” for the support of their school, as they were able to stay after school and come in during weekends to prepare for the culinary challenge.
“We have been here Monday to Sunday, two hours a day,” Put said.
AIMAN AMERUL MUNER/Stuff
Mountainview High School teacher Tess Taylor said students Latisha Put, left, and Tyler Happer have always shown a passion for cooking.
“We are now researching what we will do for our main for the grand final, it has to be something involving chicken.”
The pair leave Timaru for Auckland on September 6 with teacher Taylor.
“Oh yeah I am going,” Taylor said.
“I wouldn’t miss it, I am really pleased because this is the third time I get to go.”
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