Root to Tip Cooking at Whareama School
Students from Whareama School showcased their creativity, teamwork, and commitment to sustainability at a unique Root to Tip Cooking Competition held recently at Tūmapūhia marae. The event, inspired by skills gained through their Garden to Table programme, challenged tamariki to prepare delicious meals using seasonal vegetables while minimising food waste by using every part of the produce. Using our Root to Tip Competition resource, they hosted an incredible day of cooking and connecting.
Most of the vegetables used were freshly harvested from the school garden and the marae’s extensive māra kai (vegetable garden). It was a true community affair with the school principal, teaching staff, parents and grandparents all on hand to help out and marae representatives making up the judging panel.
Annabelle Broughton’s team was busy whipping up a tangy pumpkin dip with carrots and celery and a pear crumble for dessert. “We’ve been under pressure but we got it done, I’m proud of how we’ve worked together” she said. “We chose to use pumpkin because we knew we could use the skins to make veggie stock after.”
Teams had each created their own recipe book which included a plan for where all their waste would go if it couldn’t be used in their dishes. There were broccoli stem chips, crispy fried kūmara skins, dip served in lemon peel bowls and cauliflower leaves used for presentation – all showing a great commitment to the Root to Tip kaupapa. “We’re going to use our egg shells on the garden to stop the slugs and dry our onion peel to make onion powder,” said Emily Chapman.
Many children had chosen recipes they had already tried during their Garden to Table sessions as they felt confident they could produce good results. Others chose new recipes and some even created their own to creatively use the whole vegetable. Some of the mouthwatering dishes included cauliflower arancini, beetroot brownie, roast kūmara chips and chili garlic broccoli.
And the judges were blown away. “I could see the excitement, the smiling faces and you were ready to cook your hearts out. We were blown away with how much love you put into all your dishes,” said Missy Riddell in her closing statement. In the end, the judges couldn’t possibly decide and although there were some honourable mentions, it was agreed that great kai, low waste and community were the winners on the day!
With special thanks to Whareama School for sharing their experiences with Garden to Table and the team at Tūmapūhia Marae for being such amazing hosts and judges.
You can try part of our Root to Tip classroom resource including recipes on our taster page. The Root to Tip Competition Guide is available to our member schools.