About a dozen foil trays of school lunches took centre stage in Parliament's Banquet Hall on Tuesday afternoon.
The government was unveiling its school lunches reboot, rolling out a new menu it says will save more than $130 million a year.
The beige display made a terrible first impression, with one colleague remarking the cold meals "smelt a bit off".
It wasn't until after a few speeches, when reporters crowded around a table of hot meals, that the new school lunches truly shone.
The heated food had a pleasant aroma and, upon a taste test, blew Associate Education Minister David Seymour's socks right off.
"It is so good. I mean, it's one of the best meals that you're going to have."
The meal in question, beef rissoles with mash and gravy, attracted an impressive 9.5/10 rating from Seymour.
The butter chicken option wasn't far behind at 9.25/10 - but only because the rissoles were "even better", he said.
"I'm absolutely stoked and I think a lot of kids will be stoked when they see this. There's been a lot of trepidation. I think they're going to be blown away by this."
Minister David Seymour eating lunch at the launch of the revamped school lunch programme. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
It's hard to gauge just how stoked kids might be about the meals and there were none in sight at Tuesday's announcement.
But ACT Minister Andrew Hoggard taste-tested a serving of mince and beans and reckoned his daughter would endorse them.
"Pretty sure my daughter will eat this. She's pretty fussy but she does like butter chicken and stuff like this."
I took a handful of packaged school lunches back to the office to see what my colleagues thought.
The chickpea curry attracted a "tasty enough" 6/10 rating from one reporter and a "not bad" 7/10 score from another.
The beef rissoles that blew Seymour away attracted a "would eat because it's free" 5/10 from a colleague, and a "pretty good" 7/10 from me.
Some schools would continue to prepare meals internally, while being able to access a range of government-negotiated wholesale ingredients.
The transition to the new programme was expected to be ready by Term 1 2025.
Some of the new school lunches showcased to media at Parliament. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
