Elijah Zelaya was 9 years old when a TV producer reached out on social media in late 2022. They had watched an Instagram reel of him cooking, and they wanted him to audition for “MasterChef Junior.”
His dad, Jeff Zelaya, thought it was a scam.
But then the producers kept reaching out to Jeff on different social media accounts. They called and left him a voice mail. When he realized it was authentic, he rushed to pull together the paperwork. Soon after, Elijah flew out to Los Angeles and auditioned for the show. In February, he was cooking in front of celebrity chef and reality TV star Gordon Ramsay.
“I saw this as the first step of my cooking career,” said Elijah, now 10. “I’ve never been on any TV show.”
The Howard County fifth-grader was one of two Maryland students to be featured on the recent “MasterChef Junior: Home for the Holidays.” Zarah Spriggs, a 10-year-old who now lives in Calvert County, was also on the show. The four-episode special ran in December on Fox.
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Both Zarah and Elijah dream of becoming chefs. (Zarah also wants to be a business owner and actress, she said.) Both of their mothers started teaching them to cook when they were 3 years old. Zarah’s favorite things to cook are steak, salmon, mac and cheese, and grilled cheese with tomatoes and mayonnaise. Elijah likes to cook chocolate soufflé and moqueca de camarão, a Brazilian shrimp stew.
Hundreds applied to be on the TV show. A few children from across the country were chosen to fly to Los Angeles to audition, and nine were ultimately chosen to compete for the $25,000 prize. The other contestants were from California, Florida, North Carolina, Washington and Texas.
Both the Spriggses and Zelayas said the process was stressful, including the pressure on the kids to show off their cooking skills. And before any filming took place, the young chefs had to finish any schoolwork they had back home.
After several steps, the news finally came — both Zarah and Elijah would appear on the show.
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Both recalled being thrilled to receive their MasterChef aprons. But they were also nervous about cooking in front of Ramsay, who has a reputation for at times being callous and aggressive on his other television shows, like “Hell’s Kitchen.”
“He’s ruthless,” Elijah said. “I’ve seen him on TV a lot and he doesn’t hold back.”
Zarah said she was nervous because Ramsay has been her idol for years.
“I just was freaking out. I said, ‘What in the world is going on?’” she said. “I have never seen anyone famous in my whole life.”
After filming in February, both went back to their homes in Maryland. Both had been gone for weeks, prompting questions from classmates. But they couldn’t share any details until the show premiered.
“It was hard, because I talk a lot,” Elijah said. “And because I talk a lot, things slip out, so I had to be very careful with what I said for 10 months straight.”
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About two weeks before the show aired, Zarah and Elijah were finally allowed to share their secret, they said. Since then, they’ve been balancing schoolwork and media interviews.
Zarah and her mother, Leela Spriggs, said it has been a whirlwind.
“It was a very fun experience, right?” Leela asked. Zarah — who describes herself as a quiet kid — replied, “Yup.”
(Spoiler alert in case you haven’t seen the episode yet): Zarah was eliminated with two other chefs during the first episode of the four-episode special. Elijah won a savory pie-making challenge by cooking a beef empanada with potato, peppers and a secret salsa recipe from his family.
He was one of the three chefs to star in the finale, though he lost the MasterChef Junior snow globe trophy to Rae Barker, a 12-year-old chef from Texas.
Elijah said he never thought he would have an experience like this. He said in the weeks since the show premiered, he’s received several gifts such as candy, toys, stuffed animals and a heart necklace. He showed a poster congratulating him that several fifth-graders at his school signed.
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His dad, Jeff, said he was holding back tears as Elijah recounted the experience. “It was just an amazing experience like how much he grew and how resilient he became,” Jeff said. “It was a lot of pressure.”
When Zarah tried to tell her classmates about her appearance on the show, they didn’t really believe her, she said. A classmate looked her up on Google to check. They were stunned.
“They wanted me to bring my apron” to school, she said. But for now, she wants to keep her new prized possession at home.
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