Free Lunch

Last week, Chef was invited to be a judge at our local school. The 'Great School Bakeoff' was taking place, and it being lunch time I thought I would tag along to see what was on offer. The class was divided into teams of 4, and they had to source the food, make a menu, cook the meal, set the table, and set an extra place for the judges. I do not know who did the dishes. I must say that the range of food on offer was considerable, and I did not wish to be a judge at all.
During all this, the Member of Parliament for Dunedin North, Pete Hodgson, turned up. I think he was on his way to somewhere else, and just called in. His presence did not worry the children who at that stage were tucking in.
The table the judges chose to win was not the table pictured above. This table's menu was all caught by the boys at the table, and consisted of wild pork sausages, smoked trout, cold roast rabbit slices and potato chips, and some sort of home made bread. All washed down with ginger beer. Desert was chocolate ice cream with lashings of chocolate sauce. The smoked trout was one of the best I have tasted. I could not get an answer when I asked where he had caught it, but the boy assured me he had done everything himself, and smoked it with a light coating of brown sugar. Chef told me later the only reason this table did not win was because they had no vegetables. "But they were all boys!" I protested.
In the above photo, Hon. Pete Hodgson admires the handy work of the 'Kiwi' Table team. I don't think he got anything to eat.