(above) Emily Stass Competes on Food Network’s Chopped Junior
Image is courtesy of Food Network.
For half a year, Emily had to keep the biggest secret ever. She was so excited to finally share the news with all her family and friends that she would be appearing on tv as a competitor on Food Network’s Chopped Junior! Her episode is entitled “Boared Silly”. And according to Food Network, the episode is “anything but boring”.
Emily was twelve years old at the time of her shoot in February. She competed against two competitors from Florida and one from Texas. She is happy to keep in touch with both Tara and Sa’de who were her fellow competitors.
Emily is a thirteen year old Pingry student and resides in Warren. She will be entering eighth grade in the fall and also dances and plays field hockey, basketball and softball in addition to cooking. She is the second oldest of her four siblings ages 15, 10, 3 and 1.
Cooking has been a passion of Emily’s for some time. She credits her Grandma, Lorrie Heldt, for teaching her recipes that she loves including a savory mac and cheese recipe that she submitted to Food Network, in addition to her signature dish of Inside Out Empanadas. She also likes to help her Mom out in the kitchen and even prepares full meals for her family like one of her favorites, chicken parmigiana.
Emily celebrated her television debut on Food Network’s Chopped Junior with family and friends courtesy of the Brook Arts Center and Illusions Media LLC. Her episode was viewed on a large movie screen on the stage of the beautiful historic theater in Bound Brook, NJ. The celebration was complete with step and repeat for guests to take photos on as they arrived and a beautiful Chopped Junior cake made by Teresa Maillaro, a friend of Emily’s family. Emily prepared her signature dish of Inside Our Empanadas, as well as her savory Homestyle Mac and Cheese, edible cookie dough and more! It was the perfect celebration!
In her episode “Boared Silly”, Emily made it through the appetizer round by making a boar quesadilla with her basket ingredients of boar, arrepas, limberger cheese and pig lollipop. For the entree round, she made a salad with her basket ingredients of branzino, liverwurst, purple potatoes and kale. Unfortunately, Emily was chopped due to her lack of dressing. It seemed to be a close call between her and competitor Ethan in that round, who also made a salad.
This is just the beginning for Emily who stated in her interview on Chopped Junior that she knows “my family will be proud of me”. And, indeed they are. Emily has created a Facebook page called “Chow Down With Emily” to continue doing what he loves at www.facebook.com/ChowDownWithEmily. She plans to post her You Tube cooking videos to share her love of cooking with everyone. And, she hopes to one day return to a Food Network.
“The experience was amazing and something I will never forget. Everyone on the set was so nice and made us feel so comfortable even though it was a competition. I will remember it forever.”
