A beautifully crafted passionfruit flavoured mousse shaped like a cacao bean has won Toi Ohomai student Shania Nickel the title of “most promising young chef” at the national Mousse Masters competition.

Miss Nickel, 20, was encouraged to enter the competition by her Toi Ohomai tutor, Noel Remacle.

Selected schools from around the country were invited to submit entries, with three students chosen for the final cook-off in Auckland.

Miss Nickel travelled north with her mother, her tutor and a classmate, who supported her throughout the day.

She said she “pretty much freaked out” when she learned she had been named a finalist.

“I cried,” she said.

Her dish, named Bean of Pacific, featured a mousse shaped like a cacao bean – the ingredient at the heart of the Weave Cacao brand at the centre of the competition’s brief.

The mousse was filled with passionfruit, to represent Pacific flavours, and topped with a delicate white-chocolate hibiscus flower.

Miss Nickel spent weeks perfecting the components, often practising “seven days a week” and producing dozens of chocolate flowers.

“I probably made at least 50 of them,” she said.

At the final, competitors had only 90 minutes to assemble their dishes.

Because her mousse needed to set before it could be painted, Miss Nickel used liquid nitrogen for the first time.

“It set pretty quickly,” she said, though the process was not without stress – she broke her mould during the rush.

Judges were impressed with her concept and execution.

Renowned chef Peter Gordon praised her flavour and presentation. She recalled him telling her that her mousse was “perfect” and that the dish clearly represented the competition’s purpose.

Miss Nickel said the highlights of the experience were meeting Peter Gordon and seeing how proud her tutor was.

“He helped me a lot. I couldn’t have done it without him,” she said. Her mother watched the event from the audience.

Miss Nickel lives in Whakatāne and travels to the Toi Ohomai campus in Tauranga for her NCEA level 4 bakery studies class. She has completed levels 4 and 5 in culinary arts and plans to pursue the sweet side of the food industry.

“I love making birthday cakes,” she said, explaining her long-term goal of being a pastry chef and maybe owning her own cakemaking business one day.

Her love of baking began at Whakatāne High School during food technology and hospitality classes taught by teacher Andie Eves, a class she said she “never wanted to leave”.

Winning the competition came with two major prizes: an intensive two-day chocolate course in Christchurch with the Weave Cacao company’s owner, Oonagh Browne, next year, and 40 kilograms of chocolate, which she has stored at home in large boxes, ready for her next creation.