Jackson Mehlhopt is head chef at Christchurch’s Tussock Hill Cellar Door and Winery and this year he was a regional finalist in the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition. The Competition is a global annual event to support young chefs and their personal vision for the world of food, demonstrating how food can have a positive impact on society at large. Ten chefs under 30 each cooked one dish for the Pacific region competition. Jackson’s dish, “The Southern Kiwi Deer and Its Surroundings,” was also awarded the Acqua Panna Award for Connection in Gastronomy, and clearly impressed the judges by his use of Wapiti deer - a South Island animal commonly thought of as a pest - highlighting issues of food waste and sustainability. I was excited to talk to Jackson, obviously because he is from Christchurch, but also because he has had an unbelievable trajectory as a chef. He has worked at Roots in Lyttelton, Amisfield in Queenstown, he did a short stint at Relae in Copenhagen and is now head chef at Tussock Hill. And he is 23 years old. I loved chatting to Jackson. He had some beautiful things to say about stewardship of the land, sustainability and how important community is to him as a chef.