Ridgewood teen Emma Scher to be on “Chopped” teen competition
Tuesday July 2, 2013, 6:39 AM
BY KARA YORIO
STAFF WRITER
The Record
CHOPPED: TEEN INVASION
10 tonight Food Network
Cooking is relaxing for Emma Scher. At home, the music is playing and stress fades away as she prepares a large meal.
That calm was tested in The Food Network’s Chopped Kitchen as the 18-year-old Ridgewood resident competed in the popular cooking show “Chopped” on its second episode featuring teenage cooks.
Scher is no stranger to cooking competitions — she missed her high school graduation from Bergen County Academies last week to be at a national culinary competition in Kansas City, where she finished third in the nation for culinary arts in the high school age group. “Chopped,” however, was unlike anything she had done before.
“Usually in competitions, I know what I’m going to make, the people I’m going to compete against, what they’re going to give me, but this was very different,” Scher said.
In preparation for the unknown, Scher’s BCA instructors, chefs John Branda and Mary Beth Brace, not only introduced her to ingredients she might not have used before, but also helped her become well-versed in less familiar cooking techniques. The idea, Scher said, is that if she didn’t know the ingredient, she’d at least feel confident in the method of preparing it.
Appropriately she will watch the show not only with her parents, but with Branda and about 50 other students and staff members at BCA.
