Passionate young cooks

CELEBRITY chef Curtis Stone is a regular guest judge on top-rated shows such as Masterchef Australia, My Kitchen Rules Australia, Top Chef Masters (US) and Around the World in 80 Plates (which he co-hosted with Cat Cora).
Now, he is to judge the creations of 12 young budding chefs in Top Chef Jr, a spin-off of the Emmy award-winning reality cooking competition series.
While Top Chef features professional chefs, this spin-off follows 12 talented cooks aged between 11 and 13 years who compete against each other to become the first-ever Top Chef Jr.
The series, hosted by Vanessa Lachey, premieres tonight at 8pm on Lifetime (Astro channel 709), and will air every Tuesdays to Thursdays after this.
During a tele-conference call with Stone in Los Angeles, the chef says: "In many ways, I feel that Top Chef was the original culinary competition where real chefs came to play.
"When you watch the progression of the chefs who came on the show throughout the seasons, they went on to work in award-winning restaurants. So the industry takes it very seriously.
"Similarly with Top Chef Jr, we saw contestants who were really ambitious and who saw this as a career."
He adds that in casting contestants for the show, they were not looking for the cutest contestants or the most interesting.
"We cast the kids that had a real passion for cooking and a real drive to compete and to do well. What you are going to see are kids who try so hard and are so talented. I was really taken aback when I first met them."
Stone has judged on several cooking competition shows usually giving critique to adult competitors. When asked if he had to watch what he said when offering his critique to a child, Stone said he did.
"The thing about Vanessa and I is that we both have children and we understand what the right tone to take with them is. Truthfully, we were surprised by how resilient the young chefs were and how they took the critique.
"Sometimes grown-up chefs or the seniors as we call them, they stand there with their hands folded and they don't really want to hear what you have to say about their food.
"What we noticed about these young chefs is that they listened to the feedback and they learned and improved very quickly because of that."
The parents of these young chefs are put in a separate area when the camera is on but they can watch what is going on during production. Stone said that generally, the parents are very supportive.
Although the age gap between the contestants does not seem that wide, Stone said it may seem like a small difference but there are quite a few barriers there.
"There are differences in terms of strength and maturity and their resilience. Interestingly, the creativity from the younger ones is just unbelievable. It is cool to see how their little brains think."
Stone said that he is lucky that whenever he travels back to Australia, he gets a chance to do a show or two while visiting his family.
"In Los Angeles, the great thing about Top Chef Jris that we shoot only 15 minutes away from my restaurant Maude. We will shooting in the mornings and in the evenings I will be in my restaurant. It is not a big hindrance."
Cooking competitions shows have turned serving a simple home-cooked meal into an art form.
"One of the reasons we can even do Top Chef Jr is because these young kids have been exposed to cooking shows and culinary arts on television which I think is great." He said these shows also made viewers rethink what they were cooking at home.
Stone has been featured in numerous reality cooking shows in the past but his biggest misstep was My Kitchen Rules US which he co-hosted with Cat Cora.
Featuring one-time celebrities instead of amateur home cooks such as the Australian and New Zealand editions that were far more popular, we asked Stone why he did it.
"That was a bit of a shame. I loved the show back in Australia. I didn't imagine it they way it turned out to be. But it was still fun and I enjoyed it."