MANDEVILLE, La. – A 12-year-old student at Mandeville Middle School withstood the lights, camera, action, time limits and crazy food combinations to win an episode of ‘Chopped Junior’ that aired Tuesday night on the Food Network.
Emily Roche, a sixth grader, was on the popular cooking show that pressure cooks the contestants with strict time limits and normally odd baskets of ingredients. The chefs must combine all of the ingredients into a dish that tastes good enough to impress the judges, normally culinary titans in their own right.
Roche not only whipped up tasty dishes from items life beef tongue, quail and tye dye cake, she showed sportsmanship by helping her competition in the final, lending her one of the ingredients – frozen lemonade – when that contestant accidentally spilled hers on the floor. The gesture was reciprocated when the other finalist helped Emily plate her dish as time was running out.
The win netted Emily a $10,000 prize.