COVINGTON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- 13-year-old Kaden Storm from Covington Township is happiest when in his kitchen, spatula in hand, and experimenting with new recipes.
Most kids his age don't even know how to cook, let alone make sophisticated dishes like "Scallops, salmon, champino."
Cooking runs in Kaden's family.
His mom, Kimberly Storm-Ritter, helps manage Ritter's Farm Market with her husband and is the author of two cookbooks.
"I mean it's in his blood, for sure. The kitchen is our happy place," said Storm-Ritter.
But it was a broken arm during baseball season that allowed Kaden to hone his skills and solidify his love for cooking.
"So I was just practicing a lot of cooking, because it was really the only thing I could do," said Kaden.
After years of perfecting new recipes and countless hours spent watching his favorite show "chopped junior," a phone call from the Food Network asking Kaden to come on the show, was a dream come true.
"I got the phone call so we pulled over. I wanted to jump out of the car with excitement, but my mom did it first so she kind of stole my thunder," said Kaden.
Contestants on the show have to whip up dishes in 30 minutes using a surprise combination of ingredients.
Kaden spent months prepping with his mom.
"We started with 2 hours, then we knocked it back to an hour, eventually we got down to that 30 minute markn and then it was like, 'fingers crossed," said Storm-Ritter.
"I was a little nervous of what my friends would think about my performance on the show so I was a little nervous about that when I was told I was on the show so I went through a lot of practicing and things like that just so I could impress everybody," said Kaden.
Well we were certainly impressed.
Kaden opted to do this interview while preparing us for a delicious snack of pan-fried cucumbers, to which we had no objections.
You can watch Kaden's skills at work this upcoming Tuesday night at 8 p.m.