Lily Nichols to Participate in Local Version of Chopped! Kids

Cinnaminson Middle School student Lily Nichols will go from winning $10,000 on the kids edition of the popular Food Network show Chopped! to helping lead a local version of the event.

Nichols will appear at Kitchen 19 in Hammonton for a Cooking Class for Kids on Saturday, May 16, 2 p.m.-4 p.m. Kitchen 19 is located at 19 South Second Street in Hammonton.

Spots remain open for Saturday’s class. Tickets are $45 per child. To register, visit www.kitchen-19.com.

Nichols will assist children who will be participating in a cooking class modeled after Chopped!, the popular Food Network TV show in which Nichols won big last year.

The class will will include two teams of four students each. The teams will have the same pantry of food ingredients and the same mystery basket of ingredients.

They will work within their teams to create two separate meals and will present their final creations at the end of the class for all to enjoy.

Nichols was selected from among thousands of applicants for the first “Short Order Cooks” edition of Chopped! She competed against three other children her age in an episode that aired in September.

Her goal was to win the $10,000 prize to assist her father, Jeffrey, who suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) when he fell in 2013.

Her victory was bittersweet. Unfortunately, Jeffrey Nichols died three days after the show was taped in April.

At the Cooking Class, Lily Nichols will introduce the audience to the Nichols Family Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness fund. Tickets for the class are $45 per child, with 10 percent of the class fee being donated to the fund.

Chef Belle, who has been offering classes at the Kitchen for children ages 4-10 years old for nearly a year, will lead the class. In addition to the classes at Kitchen 19, Belle demonstrates healthy cooking in schools around Atlantic County through AtlantiCare’s Healthy Living initiative.

Linda Cashan is the owner of Kitchen 19 and its parent company, Casciano Coffee Bar & Sweetery, also in Downtown Hammonton.

“Parents of older children often ask if there are classes that are geared toward them especially when they are already comfortable in the kitchen,” Cashan said. “We had been thinking of a class that would mimic the format of the popular Chopped! show on the Food Network.”

Cashan said the idea came together when they were introduced to Lisa Nichols, Lily’s mother.

For more information, call 609-878-3488.