12-year-old from Excelsior competes for "MasterChef Junior" title

(KMSP) - Ariana Feygin is not your average chef—she’s 12-years-old and already started competing for cooking titles. 

Her journey to competing on the TV show “MasterChef Junior” began when she submitted an audition tape of herself preparing roasted canard à l’orange—roasted duck with a white wine orange sauce—and the rest was history.

“It was delicious!” Feygin said as she reminisced about the dish. “I still remember it, it was a while back though!” 

Feygin started cooking when she was just four or five years old, she said. She didn’t recall her exact age, but she remembered she had to use a step-stool to reach everything. 

In the kitchen with Fox 9’s M.A. Rosko, Feygin shared the trick to making a good steak. The petite chef said it’s all about picking out a steak with nice marbling and cooking it at the right heat.  

“It’s really important to cook a steak like this at a really high heat so that it develops the color and caramelization on it, because if there’s no color there’s definitely no flavor," she said. 

You can watch Ariana and the other MasterChef Junior contestants tackle their first challenge Friday at 7 p.m. on Fox 9.