Avery Kyle – People to Watch 2016

MasterChef Junior contestant, self-taught chef, fourth grader
Hometown: Baton Rouge
Age: 9

Let’s face it. This 9-year-old is a better cook than most of us.

A fourth-grader at Episcopal, Avery Kyle is an outgoing and clever young chef whose trademark pigtails, quick wit and cooking prowess make her a standout competitor on the currently airing season of MasterChef Junior.

With so much accomplished before even graduating to middle school, you’d be wise to keep an eye on this rising star.

• Avery learned to cook by preparing Cajun-inspired dishes such as gumbo with her family.

• She showed her appreciation for Episcopal’s cafeteria workers by cooking for them.

• She has mastered her signature dish, a lamb chop with a red wine reduction sauce and a side of potato cakes—a preparation that includes an ingredient she won’t be able to purchase legally for another 12 years.

• As of press time, she has made it to the top 14 on MasterChef Junior, the all-kids version of Gordon Ramsay’s famous cooking competition. She’s bested her competitors in everything from team challenges to croquembouche construction, and Ramsay himself told her she “nailed” the Louisiana-inspired burger she prepared for him in one episode.

Her plans in 2016:
“In the next year or two, I would really like to be doing movies and stuff like that. With cooking, I want to start writing a family cookbook. It would just be taking things that my family likes to cook at Thanksgiving and other times and putting that in a cookbook for families to cook together.”

“It’s been awesome just to watch how poised she is and how well she’s been able to handle the pressure and time constraints. … With Avery, it’s whatever she puts her mind to.”
—Sharon Kyle, Avery’s mother