Pflugerville Middle School Student To Appear On Cable Show 'Chopped Junior'

PFLUGERVILLE, TX -- A Kelly Lane Middle School student and budding chef will be featured on the culinary reality television show Chopped Junior this week, school officials said.

Caroline Coleman, who's in the seventh grade, will display her culinary prowess on the Food Network, where she will appear during the show's fourth season. The episode featuring the local student is scheduled to air Tuesday (Sept. 27 ) at 7 p.m.

Coleman traveled to New York in May to film the episode, school officials said.

“It was really fun because it was a new experience that I’d never been in,” Coleman said in an interview with Pflugerville school district officials. “They were really nice to all of us.”

Coleman is the middle child of Pflugerville ISD librarian Jennifer Coleman of Murchison Elementary and assistant principal Brett Coleman, who toils at Pflugerville Middle School. Typically quiet and reserved by nature, Caroline lights up when the subject of culinary arts comes up in conversation, district officials report.

"That turns the musical theater admirer into an exuberant wellspring of happiness," officials noted.

By all accounts, Caroline had a ball during her visit to the Big Apple to film the show. She said producers made the experience enjoyable, and she got to ride in a limousine and catch a pass from Super Bowl-winning football player and celebrity judge DeMarcus Ware.

She described her visit as a whirlwind experience, one that she's still assimilating.

“At first I was like, ‘Wha-, what?!’” she told school officials, clearly still in disbelief it all happened. “Then you get used to it, and you freak out again, and then you get used to it. It’s just a cycle.”

Her mom agreed with the summation. But she noted that the experience was both surreal and natural, the latter because Caroline's been practicing her craft since she was about three years old. What's more, she's a big fan of the show in which she'll now participate.

“I can’t say enough great things about how the whole experience was from beginning to end,” Caroline's mom said. “I’m still getting lovely emails about her episode.”

Caroline developed her love of cooking from her grandmother, Lorraine Bingham, from whom she learned Polish food recipes, she said. Cooking with her grandmother spawned a love for cooking, which led her to Foodie Kids Culinary Center in Austin – a cooking school for children from 2 to teen ages – and later to Central Market, where she continues learning about food, she told school officials.

She's already an accomplished cook. Two years ago, she took second place in PfISD in the Aramark “Chef Patrick’s Pals” Junior Chef competition.

“I make a lot of pizza. I love making dessert: dessert is my favorite thing to make,” she said. “I’ve tried torching. It’s kind of scary, but I’ve gotten used to it because I’ve tried to brulée sugar on top of meringue but sometimes I burn it on accident.”

School officials explained that on Chopped Junior, young chefs are tasked with making dishes from mystery ingredients under tight time constraints. It's a tough competition, as only one can be crowned Chopped Junior Champion, while others must face (if you'll pardon the pun) the chopping block.

Win or lose, Caroline said she plans to one day return to New York to enroll in a prestigious culinary school to perfect her craft. After that, her ambitions are big.

“My plan is after my senior year of high school, I will move to New York,” she said. “I’m going to go to CIA (Culinary Institute of America), I’m going to get my food management degree, maybe my pastry chef degree, and then I’m going to move back to Texas. I’m going to open a restaurant – I’m going to keep building those in the Texas area. Then I’m going to go back to New York and I’m going to build my restaurants in New York and then I’m going to have my restaurants everywhere.”

Her turn on the show won't be her only one on television. Soon, she'll travel to appear on a new culianry show hosted by notoriously hot-tempered chef Gordon Ramsay. This time, mom will join her on air, school officials said.

For now, the whole city of Pflugerville -- and beyond -- are rooting for the prodigy. And a note to Ramsay, in case you might come across this article: You better be nice to Caroline, or you'll have the entire city of Pflugerville with which to contend.

>>> Photo courtesy Pflugerville ISD, Caroline holds up a piece of fruit next to Aramark’s Chef Patrick Sandoval in the Hendrickson High School kitchen.