Schoolkids take on the challenge of MasterChef – and everyone’s a winner.
One of the many joyous things about Bangalow is that there are people all over town and countryside quietly working away at special projects that have far-reaching results.
Case in point is last month’s Bangalow primary school MasterChef competition. Held at the A&I Hall and inspired by the TV show that captured a nation, the show was given its own Bangalow twist and turned into a fascinating and fun-filled project which has some very uplifting side effects.
Run by Leah Roland of the Bangalow Cooking School, and Michael Malloy from the Chamber of Commerce, in cooperation with 
teacher Michelle Maiden representing Bangalow Public School, this ambitious cooking competition captured the fancy of kids and their parents for a full week. It was part of the much larger ‘Growing Healthy Schools’ grant project that includes making and growing a vegie garden and teaching basic cooking skills. It is a multi-faceted creative approach, an adventure with the kids learning life skills that are transferable from the kitchen and garden to the classroom: how to work in teams, have fun, anticipate the group’s needs (when to open the oven, when to stand back, etc), use sharp knives and other dangerous kitchen equipment and how to read – and act on – a recipe.
The preparation for the contest must have been extraordinary. There were cook-offs and finals and each of these required parents assisting the kids (maintaining a distance to encourage the kids to think and do for themselves). And there was the sheer slog of setting up so that each team, at each stage of the competition, had everything they needed to get on with the task ahead.
At the finals there were five groups battling it out for the MasterChef Bangalow 2009 title. This part of the competition imported celebrity chef and parent, Anthony Telford, to give a ‘Master Class’ and for the kids to replicate the same dish with the same professional verve. Because the teams were of such a high standard (being winners already in their age group) there was an additional test – the ‘Taste Challenge’. A Pad Thai dish was brought in from the Urban (also sponsors), and kids had to guess 10 correct ingredients by tasting, looking and smelling to gain additional team points. A very complex task: distinguishing the different ingredients and refining the palate is a great way to having a deep relationship with what one is eating. The competition finale was centred around making an individual deconstructed cheesecake with jelly topping, Oreo biscuit crumble and berry coulis, a slight departure from the normal food fare of seasonal, healthy and local. 
In these days when the media is in full flight, shouting and complaining about rising obesity in Australia and how “the government should do something about it”, a program like this shows that there is another way. Teaching kids about food, how to cook it, shop for it, grow it, and work out which taste goes with what – in such a way that is not only fun but deeply instructive and engaging – surely must be making a major step along the way to thoughtful eating. No need to wield a big stick when you can grow your own carrot.
Stephanie King
Photos: Guest chef, Anthony Telford, explains the importance of presentation.
Winning team Frieda Herrmann, Kiara Milsom, Georgia Rankin, Indi Anderson and Ethan Thompson making the cheesecake shell.
Knazovicky, David Roland and Libby Repin.