Time on Food Network show leads Louisiana woman to unexpected career path

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — What started as a "joke" helped shape LSU sophomore Emily Roche's future. She applied to be on the Food Network show "Chopped Junior" before the first season premiere.

Roche said she learned about the series at her "very first cooking class at Culinary Kids in Mandeville." She said her skills "were very limited at the time."

After the casting process, Roche learned she would be on season two. A year after applying, Roche went to Food Network’s studios in New York City for filming in 2016. She said that at 11, she was the youngest of the four contestants.

The competition took place over three 30-minute rounds — appetizer, entrée and dessert. Contestants used four mystery ingredients for each dish, and judges "chopped" the weakest contender after each segment.

"The clock does not stop, even if a contestant cuts themself with their knife on accident, there is
medical staff on-site to assist with the injury, but the clock never stops," Roche said. "Everything you are seeing in the episode is exactly what happens when filming the show."

During the appetizer round, Roche pan-cooked beef tongue and rock shrimp and made a salad. For the entrée round, she said she "made a pan-seared quail with pesto-stuffed bagel buns." In the dessert round, the LSU student made a dish that included bread pudding with crumble on top and whipped cream on the side.

Roche won the episode, which came with a chef coat and a $10,000 prize.

"If I were to tell my younger self going into my first cooking class that a year later that would’ve happened, I would’ve been in awe," she said.

Since the show, Roche said she's only worn the coat once or twice, but she might put it on for Halloween next year.

After winning her "Chopped Junior" episode, Roche returned to take classes at Culinary Kids and eventually became the manager of the Advanced Cooking Classes.

She said the experience taught her a few things.

"Still, to this day, it reminds me to push my limits and put myself out there no matter how ridiculous something may seem at the time," Roshe said.

She also learned that a future in the culinary arts was not in her future.

"I knew that it was a great skill I am very good at, and it’s always a great skill I’ll have, just not one I wanted to devote my life to," said Roche.

While the experience on Food Network closed the door for one career path, it opened her eyes to new options.

"I think my experience on the Food Network definitely gave me an interest in broadcast television, and I owe my confidence being on camera to when I was 11 running around the set of 'Chopped Junior,' cooking with nine cameras catching me at every angle and every movement I made," she said.

She is studying journalism with a minor in leadership development. Roche was a news reporter on Tiger TV and now will produce their news show on Wednesday this spring. She plans to work in broadcast television or journalism.

She said, like cooking, it lets her bring creative skills to telling a story.

And she still loves to spend time in the kitchen and helping others learn how to cook.

"I keep myself very very busy, so cooking an entire meal from scratch or making up new dishes every night isn’t always on the agenda, but I love opening my fridge and pantry, seeing what ingredients I have and cooking something with no recipe," she said.

Roche also enjoys "making jambalaya or gumbo for all of my friends while we watch an away LSU football game."

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