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Ready for the World of Master Chef

January 15, 2019

Cooking up a storm at Takitimu Marae in Wairoa: (from left) Bon Te Hiko, Hori Hokianga and tutor Tony Te Nahu preparing a luncheon to show family and supporters what they have achieved.

Two students from EIT’s marae-based cookery course are behind a dish that wowed an audience of paying guests at the inaugural EIT degustation dinner.

“Bon” Te Hiko and “Hori” Hokianga camped out alongside a stream near Gisborne to catch the eel that featured in their appetiser, designed with their tutor, chef Tony Te Nahu.
Using hemp, kanuka wood and traditional techniques, they smoked their catch to delicate perfection before helping plate it up in EIT Tairāwhiti’s Koru Restaurant kitchen.
The deboned tuna (eel) was sliced and served on a bed of watercress with cherry tomatoes and garnished with parengo (driedseaweed) that had been infused in a delicate stock.

The colourful result was stylish, simple and intensely well flavoured. 
It was the first time either had worked in a high pressure, commercial kitchen and cooked for a public occasion.

Both men were a bit apprehensive but soon realised they were having the time of their lives. “When the chef said one word you had to know what he meant and then do it, otherwise you would be lost,” said Hori.

Bon realised the experience was exactly what he had dreamed of doing.Before enrolling for the Level 3 cookery certificate programme he had always worked as a labourer in orchards and in fishing, until injuring his back and spending a year unemployed.

From Napier, he wanted to do something that would set an example for his two sons.

“I wanted to show them that they could be anything they wanted to be.”As a hunter, fisher and gatherer, food had always been his passion. He found out about the marae-based programme and moved his family to Wairoa where he soon fell in love with the cookery programme.

Tony Te Nahu had become his mentor. “He is an awesome teacher,” he said. The experience has inspired him so much that he has applied for a scholarship that will enable him to do the Level 4 programme this year.

Hori plans to open his own business, specialising in Māori cuisine.

A passionate diver, fisher and gardener, he says the programme has taught him the right way from the wrong way.

He plans to follow in the footsteps of his father, who did takeaway hangi meals from a shop at Makaraka. But he plans to add traditional
ingredients such as pikopiko (fern heads) ti kouka (cabbage tree leaves), parengo and a variety of seafoods to the menu.