The Inaugral TYEE GO GREEN! Food Recipe Challenge

10/1/2020

The first 4 Contestants being put into teams of two to compete on the first round, Tuesday 15 Sept 2020.
Team 1: Team Banks vs Team Q.S.C.
Team 2: Team Faua vs Team Paki moe To'i
The winners compete on the final night, Friday 25 Sept 2020.

Below are the 2 Finalists who are the winners from Team 1 & 2: Team Faua and Team Q.S.C.

The two Finalists infront of the Judges introducing their own recipes on the final night of the competition.

TYEE GO GREEN! Food Recipe Challenge's Judges

NUKU'ALOFA, Friday 25 September 2020: For the first time ever in the Kingdom of Tonga, TYEE GO GREEN! hosted a Youth Food Recipe Challenge in Tonga. An innovative initiative aiming to promote our young local talents in the food arena as part of encouraging healthy eating habits by providing the people with healthier food alternatives and encourage the youth to join the national movement to fight NCDs in Tonga.

The leading cause of death in Tonga is from NCD. Our feasting habits have form part of our tradition and culture and as we figured, convincing our people away from that and into healthier eating options will be a challenge.

However, with TYEE GO GREEN! Food & Recipe Competition it’s the complete opposite, we dig more into our roots by encouraging our young future chefs to think local, think healthy, and think innovative. In that way, our people are not threatened by the fading of their tradition but otherwise they feel more connected to our roots and our culture through food.

With 5 food categories to choose from; Kumala, Fish, Limu Tanga’u, Banana and Drinking coconut, the 4 Contestants were judged by their local recipes for Taste, Presentation, Creativity/Innovative, Crowd Appeal and to create a dish for the judges' tastings and evaluation out of the 5 categories being put together into one.

We started the initiative with 4 winning online recipe submissions.

A young single mother of 3 from Maufanga. TEAM FAUA
A recent post graduate chef but is now teaching at QSC College. TEAM QSC
A member of the women’s national rugby team with a passion for food TEAM PAKI MOE TO’I
All the way to Fiji, a current baker/ chef at one of the well-known bakeries in Tonga. TEAM BANKS

These 4 contestants battled for the best two winning dishes to advance to the finals to compete for the title “Youth Master Chef” in Tonga.

The two finalists then went head to head on Friday, 25th of September for the last chef standing.
Sharing the judges' panel for this competition was the CEO for Tonga Health, Head Chef of Zero Chef Restaurant, Sione Tau’aika, Chef Mino, and Nutritionist Diplomat from Vaiola, ‘Ilisa Topui. Some of the remarks from the judges read;

“These dishes taste and look like 5 star dishes”. Chef Mino, Feleti Mahoni Hifo.

“Oku faa siolalo foki ae kakai kihe elia oe kuki, ka kapau koho taleniti ia, DON’T GIVE UP”. Chef Sione Tau’aika.

“This was a very colourful dish; the rainbow colours signify a variety of nutrients and its very healthy.” Vaiola Nutritionist Diplomat, Ilisa Topui.

“These ingredients are accessible, local, day-to-day ingredients that we use, just not quite like this, it’s good to know that the talents today can turn something we are used to into something delicious and new and we should share these talents with the people”. CEO Tonga Health, ‘Ofeina Filimoehala.

Like every challenge, it took more than just TYEE to execute this initiative and we are grateful for the collaboration, support, and sponsorships of Ms. Amelia Vallabh. She has not only volunteered to host our events but also her time to support our young future chefs at the event where required.

This success of the event was enabled by a collaborating effort between Tonga Health Promotion Foundation, Rise & Shine Australia, Taufa’ahau Village, South Pacific Mozuku Tonga Ltd, and SCH Lawyers Ltd.

L-R: Winner 1st Place, Amelia Vallabh, 2nd Place.

Below are the 1st and 2nd winning recipes.

Winner 1st Place Prizes:
500 TOP Proudly Sponsored by Rise & Shine Australia
50TOP Gift Voucher Proudly Sponsored by Tonga Health Promotion Foundation
Flowers Proudly Sponsored by TYEE, supplied by Youth Entrepreneur/Florist, Isitolo Siale from Pelehake.

2nd Place Prizes:
250 TOP Proudly Sponsored by Rise & Shine Australia
30TOP Gift Voucher Proudly Sponsored by Tonga Health Promotion Foundation
Flowers Proudly Sponsored by TYEE, supplied by Youth Entrepreneur/Florist, Isitolo Siale from Pelehake.

The Winning Recipe by Latai Fa'aoa (QSC)

2nd Place Recipe by Tauata Loto'aniu (Faua)

Favourite Quotes from our last two finalists says, “Don’t work hard, work smart” and “Big Dreams can Win Big”. This sums up the feeling and passion these young contestants have whilst participating in the first ever TYEE GO GREEN! Food Recipe Challenge.

It was a night of celebration of the talents and determinations these young future chefs had to being the best in what they do.

By participating in this event, our young people are given the opportunity to share, develop and promote their talents which will eventually be the basis of starting their own small businesses.

Long term, this initiative will bring out the best hidden talents in the food arena, offer a variety of healthy, local and innovative eating alternatives, create employment opportunities and not only contribute to our country’s economy but most importantly the improve the health of our people.

Given the fresh and new nature of this initiative we are open and welcome to collaborating with all relevant parties in the food arena in our country to take this initiative to the next level and create multiple opportunities with this same initiative.

We work better when we work together.

TYEE GO GREEN! Food & Recipe
Your health is your responsibility.