Casey Broad (16), Gina Manning (16) and Declan Smith (17) beat pupils from Kaipara College (Helensville) in the grand final of the televised cooking and quiz competition on Saturday morning.
Despite the attention their appearances on television had given them, Gina said they would not let it go to their heads.
"People come up to you and say `I saw you on TV at the weekend'. People know who we are now.
"They watch the show because of us.
"School pride has been raised because of it.
"But overall, we hope it educates young people to eat better and experiment in the kitchen. If that's one thing we have succeeded in, that would be great," she said.
The Dunedin trio have appeared in several heats of the show, competing against pupils from 16 secondary schools around New Zealand in a mix of cooking, interactive questions, silly challenges, sketch comedy and physical competition.
Each team was given a base recipe for a dish, but it could use its creative, nutritional input to impress the judges.
For the final, Casey said they made a non-traditional Mediterranean pizza with a pesto base, topped with pumpkin, spinach and feta cheese.
The team was delighted with its success, she said.
"We didn't think we would get to this point.
"Gina and Declan don't do food tech - they learnt from scratch."
Declan said teamwork was the secret ingredient in their recipe for success.
Each team member had their own part to play - some less enjoyable than others, he said.
During the heats and semifinals, Declan went beyond the call of duty during the rapid-fire quiz sessions in which he had to eat caviar and drink cod liver oil every time he answered a question incorrectly.
"I was repulsed by it . . . but it had to be done."
