VUWTC MasterChef 2023 🥘

Tēnā koutou!

Fancy yourself the Gordon Ramsey of the Tararua Ranges? Enjoy cooking? Hate cooking but love competition? Have we got the event for you!

We are beyond excited to announce the very first VUWTC MASTERCHEF!!!

Get a team together to compete for glory and prizes, or just come along to hang out and watch… read on to find out more. 

Where and when?

We’ve booked out Waerenga Hut in the Ōrongorongo valley for the night of Saturday April 1st (no seriously this isn't an april fools joke we swear).

We’ll meet at the Hunter Carpark on Kelburn Campus at 10am, and carpool to the road end.

Lochie is organizing a bike group who'll take the ferry to Eastbourne and ride in, choose the tick option on the sign up form if you'd like to do this.

It’s an easy 2 hour walk to get to the hut – you do have to cross a river at the end, but it’s a pretty tame river and you don’t have to cross it alone. 

The hut has 15 bunks, so there might be some people in tents - we will sort this out closer to the time.

How will the competition work?

You will compete in teams of up to 4 people. There will be two rounds…

Round 1: Make your best tramping meal! You will have 30 minutes to prepare and serve up the most impressive dish you could make over a gas cooker in a remote backcountry hut. The less preparation you do at home, and the more practical this meal is for tramping, the higher you will score. You will provide your own ingredients for this round. This will also be dinner for your team, so make sure you cook enough!

Round 2: Mystery box! 45 minutes of creativity and chaos. We will provide the ingredients for this. Please make sure that your dietary requirements are up to date on your profile and we’ll do our best to accommodate this :) 

We’ll start in the late afternoon and aim to be all wrapped up by 7ish. Apart from a prizegiving ceremony in the morning, there’s nothing planned for Sunday – you can go home, do more tramping up the valley, climb a tree, build a raft, etc…

NOTE: We might do some filming and edit together a mini-episode of VUWTC Masterchef to show at a later meeting. Let us know on the day if you would rather not be filmed.

What will I need to bring?

Spectators:

• Standard overnight gear

• Your own meals (snacks, 1x breakfast, 2x lunches, 1x dinner)

Competitors:

• Standard overnight gear

• Ingredients for round one

• Your own meals (snacks, 1x breakfast, 2x lunches. Bring dinner if you’re really not confident your team’s cooking will be edible…)

• Any cookware / utensils you’d like to use in the competition. A gas cooker and pots/pans can be borrowed from the club. Our rule (within reason) is if you can carry it in you can use it, but nothing electric/powered!

• A plate/bowl/something to serve up your meals on for the judges (remember presentation is key)

• Tupperware for any leftovers

How much will it cost?

Spectators: $20pp

Competitors: $30pp

Costs cover petrol, hut fees, mystery box food, and prizes.

Drivers will pay $5 less and be reimbursed petrol money. If cost is a barrier for you, please let us know and we can sort something out.

Where do I sign up?

Sign up at the bottom of this page (from 8th March)!

You can sign up as a team (each team member still needs to sign up on this website), or as an individual and we’ll find a team for you.

If you just want to come along to hang out and cheer on/hurl abuse at the chefs, then you’re more than welcome to do that too! Sign up below and tick the ‘spectator’ box.

Spots are limited so get in quick – although please do make sure that you can commit to the date. It’s okay if something else comes up, but please withdraw on this page ASAP so we know! If you drop out less than 48 hours beforehand you will be expected to still pay the trip fee.