“They actually have two challenges,” Che tells Parade.com in this exclusive interview. “The first is a mystery challenge with the ingredient turning out to be walnuts, and they have to make something with walnuts as the star of the dish. Then I come in for the elimination challenge, and it’s all about flambé. I love flambéing. That’s when you’re cooking something, sautéing it, or whatever and it’s in a pan with alcohol and you set it aflame. It’s this beautiful thing; it makes some delicious dishes.” For the now-16-year-old, it was a great experience being on the judges’ side of the competition. “I could imagine what the contestants were feeling,” he says. “I remember looking at the kids and remembering when I was in their position exactly, meeting the season 6 winner, Beni [Cwiakala]. So, it was a great thing to be able to pass that on.” In the time since his win, Che has continued cooking but feels he still has so much to learn, even as he’s been building off of his time on MasterChef Junior and the knowledge he acquired while there. So, when the current competitors asked for his advice, he was good to go. “The judges really assigned some difficult challenges, especially in this new season,” he says. “So, the advice that I would give them is just take it slow, one step at a time. It is a time limit, you have an hour, but an hour can be longer than you think sometimes. So, take it one step at a time, don’t get too overwhelmed.” It may be advice he is able to take himself because MasterChef is returning for its 12th season on May 25, which will be an all-star season in that contestants will be returning for a second chance at the title, and two contestants from MasterChef Junior will compete alongside the adults. And Che says he would jump at the chance if invited. “Being 16, I think it would be difficult for sure. They have a lot more experience cooking than I do, which is such a huge part of it. I would love to do that though. I would go for it 100 percent. I think I could compete with them; I think it would be difficult though. But I’d be willing to give it a try.” Keep reading to find out what Che is doing with his $100,000 prize money, his plans for a bright culinary future, including his interest in developing good tasting gluten-free donuts, and more. Nothing like putting on that apron and being back in the kitchen, right? When you came back, did you get to do a demo for this season’s Juniors? Yeah, I do get to do one. That was definitely an interesting experience for sure, showing the next generation of home cooks. Teaching them was crazy because I still feel like yesterday I was there competing, watching lessons from Gordon, that kind of thing, and cooking. And now I’m doing it for the next generation. It’s a weird thing to cook again in that kitchen but not be competing. You are gluten free, so you understand that there can be difficulties on a particular challenge. What do the cooks do when there’s a challenge and they have an allergy to the food? I came across that a couple of times on my season where I couldn’t taste what we were making because I can’t eat gluten. One, for example, we made éclairs. So, in that, you really have to utilize your other senses. I had a disadvantage because you can’t taste what they’re making, but I think part of being a chef sometimes is not only using your taste—taste is a very important part of cooking, but also, what does the dough feel like? What do you smell when it’s in the oven? What does it look like? All those kinds of things. So, I think if you aren’t able to eat something, in my case eat gluten, using your other senses is definitely the key to still making a wonderful dish. You love cooking Italian, but it must be really hard if you can’t eat gluten. What do you do when you want pasta? I’ve experimented a couple times in making my own homemade gluten-free pasta. It’s very difficult for sure because one thing about making fresh pasta is you want to knead it to make the gluten. That’s something that you want. You want a more gluten-y dough because it adds that elasticity, so you can make some thin pasta, some cool shapes. So not being able to have that in gluten-free pasta makes it difficult to make at home. But there are definitely some really good brands out there that do a good job at making some dried gluten-free options. When you won, you talked about the culinary revolution. Is that something that you still think about? And what does that mean to you? I definitely think about that sometimes. Now I think of that more as new, interesting things that we can cook. I realize more and more now how important the environment is and how we really need to protect that by cooking different things that are helping the environment more. Using more local vegetables, that kind of stuff. So yeah, I still think about that kind of thing. And maybe making gluten-free food more popular. There’s a lot of brands out there that are great, there are a lot of brands that are not so great. I haven’t been able to find a good gluten-free donuts. That’s one thing for me. My brothers eat donuts all the time. So, I don’t know if that’s really revolutionary, but I think it’s something. There’s so many different gluten foods out there that there’s not a good gluten-free version of. So that would be something that I would be interested in, making something like that that would work. We were stuck at home for the last two years pretty much, so there was a lot of time to cook. But it also prevented you from going out and experiencing some of the things that the MasterChef Junior winner usually gets to do. Was there anything you got to do as a result of winning the competition? March 2020, so right as the pandemic was starting, I went on tour with MasterChef Junior. That was a blast. That was definitely one thing that I got to do that I loved. Interviews, this kind of stuff, I really enjoy, so lots of that. Pre-pandemic right after I won, I was on LIVE with Kelly and Ryan, and then I went on Stephen Colbert a little later. So, I feel like I still got a lot of those things. Maybe not as many because of the pandemic, but I still feel fulfilled in that for sure. Did you and Gordon Ramsay stay in touch? Or Aarón Sanchez or Joe Bastianich? I talk to them rarely. I feel like Gordon is a very busy guy; he’s got a lot of TV shows, he’s got a lot of kids now. But occasionally I’ll hear from one of them. Your prize was $100,000, which I think they put in trust until you’re 18. Were you able to splurge on anything? I didn’t want to deal with that money. That money, I’m saving. I want that money for when I’m older as a little gift to myself. I mean, it’s crazy I won that money. I filmed that season when I was in sixth grade, I was 12 years old. So, I feel like I want to save that money for when I’m older and as a gift to myself once I am an adult, that kind of thing. I haven’t splurged on anything. I’ve had a lot of fun, but not with that money. I’m keeping that money safe. What is the plan for the future? Culinary school? Opening your own restaurant? You mentioned last time we talked that you wanted a TV show? I still definitely want to have a TV show, that’s a huge goal of mine. Honestly, I’m not sure right now. I have so many different ideas of things that I want to do, so right now, I’m just processing all those different options of ways I could take my life. But they’re all definitely going to involve food, I still love cooking, I love the creative process of it. But I don’t have a sure goal yet. I have many goals is what I should say, I don’t have one. So, I’m still open, I’m learning different things still, trying to figure out what the right path is. Do you think you need to go to culinary school? Yeah. By no means have I learned all there is at all. I think that culinary school would definitely be a beneficial thing. Interning at a good restaurant that I enjoy would be another wonderful way to learn. That’s kind of the thing, figuring out which one of those is the best way to go. But definitely, I don’t know everything at all. There’s a lot more I can learn about cooking for sure. MasterChef Junior airs Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX. Next, Cute Kids in the Kitchen! Everything We Know So Far About MasterChef Junior Season 8
