Rotorua's Samantha Warena looking to wow at Golden Chef's Hat finals

Rotorua's Sam Warena, pictured at Skyline Rotorua, will compete in the grand finals of the 2021 Nestlé Golden Chef's Hat Award. Photo / Andrew Warner

Young Rotorua chef Sam Warena will be creating delicious concoctions as she competes in a virtual transtasman culinary competition.

She will compete in the grand finals of the 2021 Nestlé Golden Chef's Hat Award on November 17, travelling to Queenstown as one of the locations for the virtual Australasian event.

Earlier this year, Sam was named overall winner of the North Island regional live cook-off for the Nestlé Golden Chef's Hat Award, after impressing the judges with her culinary skills.

She picked up a silver medal for her efforts in the kitchen, securing her spot at the Queenstown cook-off, where she will represent the North Island in the grand finals.

Sam will battle it out against South Island representative Jamie Jackson and other top young chefs from around Australia in the virtual event.

One winner will take out Golden Chef of the Year and a $10,000 cash prize.

Aged just 19, Sam works at Skyline Rotorua.

She says for the regional live cook-off she had two and a half hours to create a main dish with chicken and a dessert of her choice.

Sam went with a ginger-stuffed chicken breast with mashed potato, carrots, broccolini, mushrooms and a braised chicken lollipop. For the dessert she made a crispy orange shortbread with chilli chocolate mousse, citrus curd, chocolate sauce and caramelised oat shards.

She says getting through to the grand finals was a big surprise and she had not been expecting it.

For the grand finals, the chefs will have three and a half hours to create an entree, a chicken main and a dessert.

However, the recipes Sam has up her sleeve are being kept a well-guarded secret until the competition.

Sam started her journey as a chef at the age of 16 at Skyline Rotorua over the school holidays. She then went back to finish off her last year of high school before returning to Skyline.

However, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit she was made redundant, and so decided to go to Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology to get her chefing course done.

It was through her course tutor that she found out about and entered the 2021 Nestlé Golden Chef's Hat Award competition.

She is now also back working at Skyline Rotorua.

"I've always liked the creativity that I was able to put forth with cooking," she says.

"There's always new things to discover and create. There's no one set answer, you can mix and match."

Sam says chef Heston Blumenthal is a huge inspiration for her and is her favourite chef.

"There's inspiration in everything."

When asked what advice she would give to other young people looking to start a culinary career, she said to make sure that you know what you're getting into.

"I was always told it's not an easy career, but it's a lot of fun, and you get to meet new people and learn from other chefs."

Sam thanked the chef tutors at Toi Ohomai and Skyline Rotorua for helping her with ingredients and practice for the big competition.

Now in its 56th year, the Nestlé Golden Chef's Hat Award supports top emerging culinary talent, helping to kick start their careers.

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