NSSCC 2026 Competitor Guidelines

The National Secondary Schools Culinary Challenge (NSSCC) is an annual event run by The Culinary Arts Development Trust. The competition is designed to promote the next generation of culinary talent, provide career pathways for students, and foster relationships between secondary schools and the hospitality industry. By entering this regional event, teams are competing for a place in the National Grand Final. There will be eight winning teams from around the country that will travel to Auckland to participate in the live cook off on Thursday 27th August and experience the New Zealand Culinary Journey the following day.

The National Secondary Schools Culinary Challenge 2026

Regional online: This is an Entrée Dish for 2026. Key Sponsors Anchor™ Food Professionals, Silver Fern Farms and Rescued Kitchen have returned, so this dish will be shaped by their requirements. (See below)

Bidfood, Moffat NZ and Southern Hospitality are with us again for 2026 as key sponsors. Their support will provide prizes, uniforms and credit to help with ingredients for Finals preparation.

Live National Final: Thursday 27th August 2026. With 8 regional winners taking part, the second dish to be cooked will be a DESSERT dish.

More details to come on the requirements for the Live Final.

Click to download Regional ENTRÉE GUIDELINES 2026

CHALLENGE REGIONS:

- Auckland - North / Northland (Schools North of Habour Bridge

- Auckland - South, East and West Schools

- Waikato / Bay of Plenty Schools

- Poverty Bay / Hawkes Bay (includes Gisborne Schools)

- Taranaki / Whanganui / Manawatu Schools

- Wellington / Wairarapa (and Kapiti Coast) Schools

- Tasman / Nelson / Marlborough / Canterbury Schools

- Otago / Southland / West Coast Schools

Entering the Online Regional Events

8 winning teams will be chosen from around the country. These teams will represent their school and region at the NSSCC LIVE National Grand Final to be held on Thursday 27th August 2026.

For this reason, on entering the online regional event, the team and school must commit to attending the final in Auckland.

Regional Online Event Criteria

A team of TWO students will prepare, cook and present two (2) identical, individually plated portions of an Entrée Dish that can be completed within a 45-minute time frame.
Each of the two Entrée dishes MUST include between 50 - 75gr (+/- 10gr) cooked weight per portion of Silver Fern Farms Beef Medallion Cut as the principal component of the dish. Allowing that there may be up to 25% of raw weight lost on cooking. The total weight of the completed Entrée dish is to be around 125gr.
Included in the Entrée dish must also be at least ONE Kapiti / Mainland / Anchor™ branded product. i.e. butter or cheese. No competing dairy brand products are to be included.
There is no set fruit and vegetable sponsor for 2026 - so get creative and make your Entrée Dish as Colourful, Nutritional and as Sustainable as you can.
Rescued Kitchen products that must be used is their Bread Flour. Once you have let us know you are entering, Rescued Kitchen will send you some product to experiment and be creative with.

Ensure you review your entry before clicking submit.

Judging of regional online entries

Judging will take place over a two week period after the closing date.
Regional entries will be judged according to the Judges’ schedule which will be available on the website asap. www.nsscc.nz
Make sure to read the judges criteria carefully so that you are aware of how the entries will be judged. This may influence the development of your Entrée Dish.

The Winners from around the country will be announced on: Monday 22nd June 2026

Regional winners’ prize package:

$500 credited to each schools Bidfood Account.
A Southern Hospitality Goodie bag to be presented at the National Final.
A Chef Knife for each Regional winner complements of Southern Hospitality.
A Chef jacket and apron to be worn at the National Final.
Some prizes are still in negotiation with sponsors. Watch this space.
The selected regional winners will receive the following to assist with the preparation for the National Grand Final in Auckland: We thank our sponsors for making these possible.
Silver Fern Farms will provide Beef Medallions. 6 packets per regional winner.
Anchor™ Food Professionals will provide your selected Dairy products.
Rescued Kitchen will provide selected ingredients.
A subsidy towards travel to Auckland will be provided. (Around 75%)
Accommodation for the Team and their Teacher/Trainer for up to two nights.
Three tickets to the NSSCC Awards Dinner following the Grand Final on the 27th August.