Two students from St John's College scooped the grand prize in the final of the National Secondary Schools Culinary Challenge (NSSCC) and are on their way to Sydney.
Year 13 students, Sam Heaven and Daniel Moss, collected a Gold Medal for their entree and main dishes after going head to head with eight other regional teams in a high-pressure, live 90-minute kitchen cook-off at Manukau Institute of Technology's Culinary School this week.
Sam, who has competed for two consecutive years, said he was overwhelmed by their win.
"The self-satisfaction is huge. I've been chasing this title for two years and to have finally won is amazing. Each year I've learned so much and put it back into developing the dishes for the next year."
It was a second tilt at the title for Daniel Moss, who felt the journey was almost as good as the win.