Judges dish up prize for Bailee's beaut tart

Bailee Barber

Winning gold at the New Zealand National Culinary Competition in Auckland was a dream come true for 17-year-old Hastings Girls' High Student Bailee Barber.

She wowed the judges with her apple and rhubarb bakewell tart, an effort which involved staying up until 2am the night before the big day.

"I'd made about four the night before but they weren't up to my standard, so I kept making more until it was perfect."

In front of a live crowd she also took out a silver award for her mushroom chicken pasta dish "... it's very scary, it's intimidating, but you just try to block everything out and get in the zone," she says.

Growing up at Waimarama marae, she was always around food in the kitchen, watching all her aunties and nanas preparaing the kai.

Being on the marae helped develop her interest in food and as she got older she started taking her passion for it to the next level.Eventually she would like to be able to return to her marae, not only helping out in the kitchen but also in the future by helping to set up more culinary and hospitality scholarships specifially for Maori.

In her experience, she found it difficult to find scholarships specifically for the hospitality industry and she thought this would be a great way to encourage more people to look at hospitality as a career.