Young Wasilla chef travels to New York for cooking show

WASILLA — “Chopped Junior,” a competition for young chiefs, recently hosted an Alaskan contestant on the show, which was filmed in December but airs on July Fourth on Food Network.

Kennedy Torres, 11, of Wasilla has been cooking for the past four years and had the goal of getting on “Chopped” for a while before she was finally accepted.

“She wanted to go on the show for over a year before she got on. She kept asking me ‘Will you put me on the show, will you put me on the show?’” her mother, Rosie Torres, said.

Despite having a huge influx of applications from chiefs who want to participate, Kennedy Torres was called by Food Network not long after she submitted her application.

“Literally a day later, they called back and they wanted to talk to her,” said Rosie Torres.

After more than six Skype interviews and various other application details, Kennedy Torres, who claims she was not nervous at all, was officially part of the show and flew to New York to film the over the span of three days.

Rosie Torres believes part of the reason her daughter received such a fast response was due to her being an Alaskan.

“They really played up the Alaska theme, because she hunts and she fishes and they trap, and so they really liked that,” she said.

“Chopped Junior” features four contestants for each competition. Three rounds consist of an appetizer, an entrée, and then dessert, and each of the rounds someone gets “chopped” until one person is left. Winners receive $10,000 and a chief coat, but who came home with the prize is still under wraps until the show airs.

In the meantime, Kennedy Torres is enjoying baking and cooking for her family. She recently bought a new Kitchen Aid, with which she plans to make many cookies.

“I have my own drawer with all my own knives, and I just bought my own bowls,” she added.

When she gets older, she also hopes to own her own restaurant that would be specifically geared towards customers with diabetes.