Anything Kasey & Karena's Special Bond

The Masterchef Trio Reunite to Cook for Cancer for Peter!

- Kelly Bertrand

It’s been four years since the Weekly, chef Peter Gordon and MasterChef New Zealand winners Karena and Kasey Bird were all crowded around a table at Peter’s iconic The Sugar Club, 53 floors up in Auckland’s Sky Tower.

Back then, Karena and Kasey had just won MasterChef’s fifth season and the Weekly was interviewing the awestruck and overwhelmed sisters about their achievement over dinner when Peter, who’d been a guest judge on the show, strolled out of the kitchen to congratulate them.

How things change – fast forward to now and Peter’s protégés have made it big on their own. Now the girls from Maketu are working alongside Peter for a very special cause.

“There’s certain things in life that pop up, and it feels like fate,” says Karena. “Like, you’re supposed to be included in these things, and every time we meet with Peter, it feels like that.

“This place,” she continues, gesturing around The Sugar Club’s opulent dining room, “always feels like a milestone place for us – every time we come back here we’re reminded how far we’ve come, and how we’ve progressed along our culinary journey.”

And Peter couldn’t be prouder of Karena and Kasey – so much so, he’s asked them to cook alongside him and other well-known Kiwi chefs at SkyCity Dining for a Difference, his bi-annual fundraising dinner for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand (LBC).