From June 25th-27th, the country's top foodies will gather in Auckland to discover new products and services, network with exhibitors, connect with decision makers and gain market insights from industry experts at Fine Food New Zealand.

Also on the menu, are five of our very own rising culimary stars who will be competing in the NZ Chef Championships and Global Chef Challenge.

• Imran Hussain, Tuileve Asiata and Caroline Araujo are competing to be the Akaroa Emerging Chef of the Year.
• Mohamed Noufal Thalika Parambil is competomg for the title of NZ Pastry Chef of the Year.
• Maya Machuca is competing in the Global Chef Challenge and, if successful, will then compete in the semi-finals against Australia, Cook Islands and PNG or Vanuatu.  The winner of this competition goes to Singapore in November 2024 for the World Finals.

These talented chefs are showing excellent commitment by squeezing in as much training as possible outside of their normal day jobs.

They were tasked with creating dishes and tweaks have been made by Executive Chefs Patrick, Touvia and Lisa to fine tune the dishes.  Patrick says, "it was important for us to have the initial ideas come from the young hopefuls.  It's been a team effort with the senior culinary team supporting Imran, Tuilevea, Caroline, Mohammed and Maya every step of the way.  They've given up their weekends and any spare time during the week to be with the team whilst they train and prepare".

The compeition will be fierce over three days as top chefs battle for culinary supermacy and we're backing out team.

Everyone at Waiopehu College wishes our ex catering and hospitality student Maya Machuca all the very best!

Article added: Friday 16 June 2023