Elijah's Culinary Journey: From Kitchen Play to MasterChef Junior

Julia Chang 0:00
right. I am co-host of Conversations with Rich Bennett. And my name is Julia Chang. I have a very special co-host today, and his name is Christopher Chen. Christopher Chang. He's not a ten years old. My bad. Ten years old. And he is my oldest son. And I brought him on because our guest today is also ten years old and he also lives in Maryland. And he has a really, really cool 

gift that he is sharing with the world on national TV. A Elijah. Elijah, welcome. 

Elijah 0:41
Hi, How are you doing? 

Julia Chang 0:42
Good. How are you? 

Elijah 0:44
I'm fine. 

Julia Chang 0:45
So could you tell the ah, tell everyone. Tell all the listeners what TV show you are going to be on. 

Elijah 0:53
I'm going to be on MasterChef Junior home for the holidays. 

Julia Chang 0:57
MasterChef Junior home for the holidays. And what famous chef hosts and judges in that show. 

Elijah 1:05
So the judges, like all the judges? 

Julia Chang 1:08
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was hoping for one chef, but I actually would love to hear. 

Elijah 1:11
Okay, so there's Gordon Ramsay. He's, like, the main star. And then the. All the judges were Gordon Ramsay, Daphne Lee, Aaron Sanchez, and Tilly Ramsay. 

Julia Chang 1:22
Very cool. Gordon Ramsay. Okay, so for those of you who don't know, we have listeners from all over the world. This is an American cooking competition. And how did you get started in cooking? You're just ten years old. Share with us. How did you get started? 

Elijah 1:42
So my mom introduced me to the kitchen when I was about three years old, and I used to be her like little helper. And then I was a helper for about three more years. So at six I started cooking by myself, and that's when I really got into cooking. And I really my my love for cooking was like activated when I was like six years old. And I started cooking dishes by myself at the age of six and then I'd just stick with it my, my whole entire life. And then now here I am, aged ten on a show because I've been cooking for literally almost half of my life. 

Julia Chang 2:18
That's right. How did you now what was like how did you even get into cooking? Was that your mom inviting you to help her out in the kitchen, or was it you kind of walking back and forth and like, What are you doing, mom? Like, let me help you? 

Elijah 2:34
So my mom, eventually she invited me to the kitchen and she said, Hey, today we're going to make this. And then as soon as I started helping her, I knew like I had something and I knew like, I could be really successful in this area. So the next time she started cooking, I said, Hey, can I cook with you? And then it just started being like a normal thing. Every time she would cook, she was like, Elijah, do you want to help me? Good. I'm like, Oh, my gosh, Yes. So every time. So she would always before cooking, she would always call me over because she knows that I love I love, love, love to cook. 

Julia Chang 3:06
Yeah, it's I completely understand that Chris is my oldest son, and I've definitely had you come into the kitchen and cook. Right. Chris, What are some of the dishes that you've cooked with me? 

Pancakes, Fried rice, burgers, Burger patties. Yeah. Elijah Which leads me to ask, what are some of your favor recipes to cook? 

Elijah 3:30
Like, there are recipes I, I actually cannot decide between tubes. I'll just share that. I have chocolate soufflé. I love, love, love chocolate. It's such a cozy dessert and it's so rich. I love. I love rich desserts. I love like. Like chocolate brownies. Oh, I love that. And then my second one is a Brazilian stew is called Mooncake. And you come around, it's like this kind of like a shrimp curry. The basics like shrimp broth and coconut milk. And then you fry vegetables and shrimp together, and it creates a create such a wonderful aroma. And then you have the coconut milk and the shrimp broth, which is kind of like to kind of like a curry. And it's amazing with white rice to top it off and some cilantro. 

Julia Chang 4:13
Both sounds so delicious. I could eat both of that right now. You're making me so hungry. So now, Elijah, do you have any questions you want to try asking 

if you have any. Just pop on in. Okay. Now for the the show. How were you invited on or did you apply? How did you get to be on the show? Because this is an amazing opportunity. 

Elijah 4:40
So I love MasterChef. I've been watching. I should just like as soon as I got to cooking Masters of Canada was actually one of the first shows I started watching, and I still haven't finished most of Canada. But yeah, so I started watching much of Canada and then my dad saw my love for cooking and he started posting my my creations on Instagram. And then that is when a massive cast producer reached out to me and she said, Hey, do you want to be on this show? We have to go through a lot of paperwork, a lot of interviews, a lot of cooking. But we finally made it and I got to like, go fly out to L.A. and be on the show. 

Julia Chang 5:15
That's so cool. How long were you in L.A. for? 

Elijah 5:19
I was in L.A. for about a month and a half for like. 

Julia Chang 5:22
Oh, okay. All right. So you kind of, like, live there for a month and a half while you're filming the competition? 

Elijah 5:27
Yeah. Yeah. 

Julia Chang 5:28
Oh, that's so exciting. I'm not going to ask how far you got because I have to watch. And when does this show premiere? 

Elijah 5:36
It's on December 10th at 8 p.m., 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. and it's coming out on Fox. 

Julia Chang 5:42
Is that tomorrow? Is tomorrow, December two. 

Elijah 5:45
And also, it's a two day special. So it's Sunday and Monday. So Monday is when like like the finale and all that big stuff. And that set Sunday like the start and like two episode. 

Julia Chang 5:58
We're definitely going to watch that. Yeah, we're totally going to be rooting you on all the way 

because I mean, for many reasons, but also because you live in Maryland, right? Where in Maryland do you live? 

Elijah 6:09
I live in Ellicott City. 

Julia Chang 6:10
In Ellicott City. Oh, we love that. Do you go to H. Mart? 

Elijah 6:15
Oh, I love H. That's so funny, because actually we just want to h Not today, but we just want to write this week because that's if you go something. G I love g o Capital because I'm geeky and I read it online like, Oh, my Instagram story, if you see and you know the kimchi really well, that's all I got that kitschy from because I'm horrible at making it. I just they are putting up a horrible out so I was biology but I love kimchi so much it's amazing And also we go there for a lot of our stuff to because in like the regular Americans are like Target and Walmart because you know, my mom is Haitian and my dad is Costa Rican Honduran. So h more have like the exotic fruits because usually Walmart and Target, they usually like grow all their stuff in USA. But some of the fruits, some of like the fruits and the vegetables that we eat, they're not from the USA. They're from other countries. So H Mine has all that. So. H My house is actually a big part of my cooking. Great, because I always go to Asia. 

Julia Chang 7:12
My I love to hear that. Yeah. H Mart is not just a Korean grocery store, it's an international store. That's how to cook up other fruits and vegetables. And that's always a fun way to cook and explore. So Chris says he has a question. 

Christopher Chang 7:26
So Elijah, how do you do school? Was all this like a show stop? 

Elijah 7:31
So they actually had school in L.A. So like once we were once we were, we had filming time in the school zone because, you know, you can't just go one month without learning. So we have to incorporate a little bit of learning. So on the set, they actually had a like a big class, right? And then you can either take your school, can like send the work for you to do and then like they'll monitor you doing it or they have like it their school. If your school didn't send homework, they have homework like there for you to work on and stuff. So at the set they actually have like a school, a school, like kind of like a school room. And we would have to sit in there for like 4 hours, go record and then go back for like another 2 hours and then like record and do interviews. So it was a very fun day and a very long day. But yeah, that's how I went to school on the show. 

Julia Chang 8:21
Wow, that's a great question. I didn't even think to ask that. That's because he's right there with you. So he's like, Wait, if you're doing all this fun stuff for a month, what about school? So you were just doing all the things all at one time? Yeah. You're fabulous. You know, I love your apron. It says your name, Elijah. And then it has that with a big circle. Is that. That's from the show, I'm guessing. 

Elijah 8:43
Yeah. This is the MasterChef logo, and this is obviously my name and the gold apron. Actually, this is the first time that they done the gold apron. So usually if you go back to, like previous seasons and previous shows, they all have a white apron. But because I'm on a special we got to have gold apron. Where apron. And if you made it to the finale, you have like the finale. 

Julia Chang 9:03
Very cool. Very cool. Which don't tell us because we're so going to be watching this. 

Elijah 9:08
We're not allowed to tell you guys. I would like all of these old shovel ready. 

Julia Chang 9:11
You probably signed a contract, right? You can't. 

Elijah 9:14
Sign. I signed the contract. You a contract of confidentiality? 

Julia Chang 9:17
Yes. Oh, look at that. Okay, so let's see, what other questions are we allowed to know? What you click on it or we just got to watch the show? 

Elijah 9:23
No, I have to keep the secret. 

Julia Chang 9:26
Keep. Okay. We won't ask you anything about the show. 

Oh, we can get cooking ideas. Okay. Like what? So you mentioned you like kimchi, and I don't make kimchi either, So I'll put that out there is hard to make every time I try to make him G is hard, so I buy it as well. Yeah. So what? Korean. So because we're Korean, I want to know what Korean recipes have you tried? 

Elijah 9:53
So Korea recipes is actually something. I'm not going to lie. I've been scared of Korean recipes because all of them, they have like multiple steps and all the procedures. And if you mess up like one part, the dish is not going to be that good. So I'm not going to lie. I've been sleeping on Korea. I love Korean food, but I have to go to another place to get it. I'm too scared to make it myself, but I would definitely try. I would definitely try making Korean food. But I love Korean food overall. My favorite Korean food, I probably say, Oh, I have a lot of favorite Korean foods. I'm not sure what my favorite Korean food is, but I love Korean barbecue. I don't actually. So Korean barbecue, they're mostly off of beef. And I don't I don't eat beef. I don't eat pork. So I haven't tried Korean barbecue because most of the products they're you know, they're beef base. But yeah, I will try it like if there's like chicken there, I will try because I eat chicken. I just don't eat pork, beef or pork. 

Julia Chang 10:47
Got it. I think they do have chicken dishes and they can do like some vegetable things in chapter touches like this noodle soup potato. I'm just giving you ideas on what to make, on what to try. 

Elijah 10:59
I'm probably going to. Sorry, I'm probably going to butcher this pronunciation. Right. But my favorite Korean is like a Seoul tofu spicy stew. It's called Hello. I'm very envious, by the way, which of this Sunda would you get? Is that was Go. 

Julia Chang 11:14
Soon to Virginia. You got. 

Elijah 11:16
It. I'm so sorry if I butcher the pronunciation. I'm so sorry. I'm genuinely sorry, but that's my favorite food. I've actually made that before. Attempted to make it. Yeah, attempted to make it. It was pretty good. But I like this. I still like the one from the store better, but I try to make it. It was pretty good, but I still like this little one better. 

Julia Chang 11:35
Sugar or sugar? Yeah. Yes. And what you get is really delicious and comforting, especially a tofu stew bubbling in the little black pot. It's a lot of it's delicious. 

Elijah 11:46
I beef. I don't really eat the people. I just eat. Don't the vegetarian one without. Yeah. 

Julia Chang 11:51
It's so good. It's so good any which way. So let's see you've showed us, you've explained to us what your favorite dishes are. You can't really talk too much about the show. We totally respect that. And you just going to have to catch the show starting tomorrow, Sunday and Monday to see how far Elijah progresses and what things he cooks and all of that stuff. What are your future plans in cooking for the next? You know, however many years I feel like you've got a vision and a dream of where you want to go. 

Elijah 12:22
I've actually been thinking about this for a long time, but I've finally narrowed it down to a conclusion. I don't know if you watch my Fox five premiere, but I also did it in like the News and Fox five. So I'll say it again. This is my favorite favorite favorite thing to do, and I think I'm going to do it. I'm going to have like a business. So I'm going to be a private chef, right? But I also love airplanes. I have a very deep passion for airplanes. So I thought, why not combine the both? So I'm going to be a private chef and then deliver across the world with my airplane, and then I'm a flight attendant and then have my food in there and delivery across the world. So I said, why not take aviation and food and combine the both? 

Julia Chang 13:01
I love that. What do you think? 

Christopher Chang 13:04
This is a. 

Julia Chang 13:05
Really cool idea, Really cool dream, and it's going to come true. 

Christopher Chang 13:08
Yeah. Just, you know, I'll then go to the movies or go to them. Who do you want to be like? Any popular shows you look up to, you Um. 

Elijah 13:20
I would say Gordon Ramsay, obviously one of them I would love to. Like, I don't necessarily want to be him because, you know, he's old. I don't want to be old too early. I want to live all my childhood. But like, I would definitely want to be like, kind of like an image of him, like popular, a popular chef, you know? But I just want to be like, kind of my own person. I really want to be like anyone. I just want to be like myself. But like also on how they're cooking, you know, skills as well, because I'm still trying to I'm still trying to like kind of match Gordon Ramsay's skills because his skills are something I have to work on for a year to get right. Like right and, you know, like achieve that kind of cooking. 

Julia Chang 14:01
Is there a another great question, Chris. Is there a style of cooking that you you gravitate towards that you prefer? Like with an appliance that you love baking, you like stove top, you like the air fryer, the grill or broiling or baking or steaming or frying. Do you have something that you mostly like or you just kind of like to explore? All of it? 

Elijah 14:23
Obviously, I kind of like to explore all of it, but I would say like in in terms of like my culture, my culture normally because we're just very healthy, we mostly fry a lot of our stuff. So like in Haiti, for example, we have something called grills, like a pork shoulder. I don't eat this anymore, but my family loves so like pork shoulder, right as marinated, boiled and then fried. So we fry a lot of our stuff. So they fry is definitely a lot of I definitely do frying a lot in my family. And also I'm stovetop like I love stuff so I'll use I'll do anything on the grill. I don't operate on the grill. That's my dad. My dad does that. I like prepare the meat and he grills it. So the grill, I'm not very fond of grilling after my last minutes of being burnt on it, I do not like. I still like inside the kitchen. That's my my. Like my little area. That's. That's why I specifically like the grills outside because we have a grill is just outside, like on the you know, like a balcony, like inside our balcony. But no, I never go near that. 

Julia Chang 15:33
You only have to be burned once to be like, maybe not. So now how about like, kid That is not with Chris. I let him use steak knives from, like, maybe a few years ago. It's very responsible. And, you know, he's old enough to do that. What age were you allowed to start? Like having a knife? Handling a knife? 

Elijah 15:54
So I'm not going to lie. Definitely. My mom was a little overprotective when I started in the kitchen. She was like, No, don't touch that. You're going to hurt yourself. But I would say I started with knives around six or seven as say, I started that, but I use them. I use. So I had this thing where it was a very small like, you know, the trimming us like that. I would use that to cook like vegetables and look at my moment. It wasn't like the big butcher knives. Now I can, I can use all type of like all range of knives because I'm very I've learned a lot include cuts and scars. But now I've learned a lot in order to like increase my level of cooking. So I'm very good with the knife. So now my mom trusted me. She like, okay, just do whatever you want. So I'm trusted with a lot of nice. 

Julia Chang 16:40
That's cool. That's good. Now, with cooking, like there's cooking, there's the cutting skills, there's, you know, a lot of different tips and tricks. And I'm sure it takes a lifetime to learn. Have you ever taken any cooking lessons or cooking classes or is this strictly just from you at home, learning from mom? Do you watch YouTube videos? I mean, how are you improving with your cooking? 

Elijah 17:06
So I would say 30% is taken. I love I watch new recipes on TV and it's like 60% is my mom and my grandma. And then the other 10% I've been to, I think like two or three cooking classes in my life. And that was like it was like, you know, like a mommy in the cooking class. That was the first one I've been to. So we made cupcakes, right? And then it was like and then, you know, like the little conjoined cupcake and you make like a flower and all of the control. And then when you eat them, you, like, pull them apart. It's like that for me, like that. And we made a design of a flower and that's a brag. But we were the best ones, you know. 

Julia Chang 17:48
I no doubt, no doubt. 

Elijah 17:50
And yeah, I think and then the other one I took was actually in Mexico and I used to go, I took like this, um, it was like a tortilla making glass. I think it was like, I don't know what it was, but I took a class. A class in Mexico that's too far from me. And the third one, 

what did I think was just too. I think. I think it was just. Yes, but yeah, I don't really go to cooking classes. I've only been like to my entire life, but my cooking classes as me and my mom in the kitchen, that's my good. 

Julia Chang 18:25
Yeah, that's the best. That's just hands on experience. You just get right in there. You know, some dishes are fabulous, and I'm sure some dishes have kind of been like a flop, but that's okay, because they're all learning lessons. Yeah. And, oh, my gosh, I totally had a question that sort of my head on. 

Elijah 18:41
I'm just going to say that flops have been a whole experience of this. Like they I even had one of my sister Junior actually. But I can't I can't disclose that. But I did have I did have one or two. That's a little mistake. But I do have one or. 

Christopher Chang 18:58
Two. 

Elijah 18:59
Experiences. Let's just say that. 

Julia Chang 19:01
Yes. 

Elijah 19:02
Yeah. 

Julia Chang 19:03
I like to say you either have wins or lessons. There's no such thing as failing, right? You're either winning or you just learn a lesson and you move on from that. So totally. Okay, Thank you for sharing that. We got a little something from you regarding the show. Okay. So I do remember what I was going to ask you. Do you have any siblings and do they cook? 

Elijah 19:22
I do have two siblings. I have both of them are younger. I'm the oldest child in my family and my sister is four years old and so we were like that for Phi Phi. So now five years old, just five year old, she just started kindergarten. And then my brother is three years old and he still goes to daycare. So I would say my my sisters are more in the kitchen more than my three year old brother, because my sister, she loves making pancakes. That's why her and my dad, they love breakfast. I'm not a breakfast guy. I do lunch dinner. I'm not really a breakfast because, I don't know breakfast like, is used to, like, boring for me. I don't know why, but, like, I just don't like breakfast that much. My sister and my. My dad, they love breakfast, just like their father and daughter bonding time. But yeah, I normally do lunch or dinner or dessert. I don't do I don't do breakfast. That's one thing I don't do. 

Julia Chang 20:18
I'm. I am team dad and sister. I love breakfast. I love my morning coffee, I love my morning toast and my eggs. But our whole family loves pancakes. So I totally get that. We also have you also have two younger siblings, don't you? And how old are they? 

Christopher Chang 20:34
Seven, five. 

Julia Chang 20:37
Seven and five. I think we maybe forgot their ages for a second, but you got it right. Seven and five. So. Right. They're on the same path as you. So, Elijah, as you were doing this interview and it's going to be aired and there's going to be kids from all over the world listening to this. What advice do you have to children who might be who might want to pursue cooking or something else that, you know, they always wanted to do? What advice do you have for them? 

Elijah 21:04
So I would say just block out, block out, like anything, block out. Anyone like they hate like block out the people that tell you like, oh, you can't do this or this is not good, or you should try something else. BLOCK that out. Do what you do and what you know best. And, you know, just try to like block all that out, do what you do. And, you know, and obviously you can have some blocks, you can have some fails, but you need to learn from you. You don't you don't have just one mistake and be like, oh, my gosh, I'm never going to do cooking again. I messed it up. You have to keep trying and keep learning mistakes are I'm I'm going to say this right now. Every chef has gone through at least one mistake. No chef and no chef that I know has not gone through a mistake. Because if you have if you have if you're like if you have not gone through a mistake, you're not a real chef. I'm just going to put that out there because you have to experiment. It's like a form of experiment. We have to try new dishes. You have to like, try, and not all of them are going to work. You can expect quality time when you walk into that kitchen that all of it is going to work because it's not. I'll tell you right now, it's not going to work like that. So you just have to learn from your mistakes and, you know, you maybe might have a chance like this if you keep sticking and keep doing what you love, you might have a it. 

Julia Chang 22:22
That's right. Absolutely. Just stick with your passion. There's always going to be naysayers. People who, you know, might hurt your feelings or make comments. But if you know that you really love something and you have this big dream that you have to continue working hard, no matter what, you have to be like, relentless in the pursuit of your goal and relentless meaning, you're not going to stop. You just going to keep going until you succeed. And I see that with you. I see that fire with you. And I love that. Elijah So I'm going to just say that you probably were not nervous being on a set with TV and all these people looking at you and the pressure of being on a cooking competition. I mean, that's it's not exactly this relaxed environment. I'm sure it was kind of a stressful environment. Were you nervous? Did you did it energize? You have it kind of describe and walk us through your emotions of the show without spoiler alerts. 

Elijah 23:19
For the camera part they can remember was nothing new to me because I've been film like ever since I was a toddler with my dad. He is big on like social media. Yeah, almost all social media platforms. So he's really big on that because he likes to share his stories with other people and, you know, like inspired people. So I've been filmed ever since I was a little kid. So the camera part was not new to me. I would say the most pressure was, you know, meeting Gordon Ramsay. That was a big pressure because especially if you watched like his other cooking shows, you can see he he does not play. He is ruthless. If your food tastes like garbage, he'll tell you it is like garbage. He does not hold back. He's like, Oh, it's good. It's amazing. No, it is not good enough, is it? He'll tell you right there. And that. So that's the part that like, freak me out a little bit. I'm like, Oh, am I going to be embarrassed to watch television? So that was the part that like, you know, that was the part that had the most pressure. But I would stay for the cooking. I just did. I just did like what I know best. I didn't really pay mind to the cameras or like the judges. I just did. I just do what I do, you know? 

Julia Chang 24:22
Yeah. 

Elijah 24:23
I would say that the most pressure was like the judges. 

Julia Chang 24:28
Okay. All right, well, that's fair. I think that's fair. And I think that was that's another piece of advice, which is just focus on what you do, like cut out all the noise, block it all out. Right. If you just focus on what you love to do, what you're passionate about, that's all that really matters. 

Christopher Chang 24:43
Yeah. Elijah, one question, really. Again, to me, since it's December Christmas season, have you ever made any Christmas dishes? 

Elijah 24:55
So yes, I have made Christmas dishes. So Christmas this Christmas like is very popular in our family. We go all out for Christmas. We are decorations, we are family over. We go all out for Christmas. So like, what do you mean, like Christmas? Like I cook a lot of dishes that I wouldn't necessarily classify as only Christmas is just because you cook this. This is a lot. But like, I don't think we cook any dishes, like specifically to Christmas, but we cook a lot of like a lot of, you know, like a lot of dishes that they're like from all around the world. But we don't really cook like any Christmas and any dishes that are like, specific to Christmas. 

Julia Chang 25:40
Very question. Their answer. Awesome. Any other questions? 

Christopher Chang 25:46
Well. 

Julia Chang 25:48
I think that's it. Can we do some okay let's do we've come to the part of the show where it's like rapid fire questions. Okay. So it's going to be like I'm just going to ask you question after question after question and they're going to be pretty relatively easy and just try to answer them as best as you can as fast as you can. Okay. So all right, Ready? All right. What what's your favorite color? Red birth month. 

Christopher Chang 26:13
June. 

Julia Chang 26:14
Favorite drink. 

Christopher Chang 26:15
Baba. 

Julia Chang 26:16
Favorite. Woohoo. We like Baba. Favorite season. 

Elijah 26:20
Autumn. 

Julia Chang 26:21
What grade are you? 

Elijah 26:22
Fifth. 

Julia Chang 26:24
What country do you want to visit one day? 

Elijah 26:28
Korea. South Korea. 

Julia Chang 26:29
Oh, you know, that's a good one. That's a that's a great know your audience one that let's see. Favorite dessert. 

Elijah 26:39
Tiramisu. 

Christopher Chang 26:41
What? How clean is your room? 

Elijah 26:43
How clean is my room? It depends on the time. If it's the morning, it's not going to be cleaned out. If you walk in the morning, do not expect it to be a separate afternoon. I'm not really in my bedroom, so it's going to be like clean. Yeah. So pretty much anytime except the morning. 

Julia Chang 26:59
Yeah, that's it. The hot seat is just random questions. Do you have anything else? 

Christopher Chang 27:03
I'm going to Pleasants. Do you get ever You. 

Elijah 27:06
Really depends on like what what. 

Julia Chang 27:09
That's more of a hot seat on my Yeah but. 

Elijah 27:11
Okay different it depends what they bring me but like no no more than like six or seven. 

Julia Chang 27:17
Fair. Let's see you. 

Christopher Chang 27:21
Need decorations on your house inside. 

Elijah 27:24
A lot a lot. 

Julia Chang 27:27
Like Christmas. I can't. 

Elijah 27:28
I can't say the exact number. I have to go count. 

Julia Chang 27:30
That's fantastic. What's your favorite Christmas thing to do? 

Elijah 27:35
Oh, sing around the Christmas tree. Wasn't hurting too many cousins. Yes, I have. We have a lot of cause I can't even remember a lot in different countries like here in U.S., I think I have like how much? Like, like snakes of it. I don't even know that a lot of goodness. 

Julia Chang 27:54
Got it. Okay. What countries have you traveled to? 

Elijah 27:59
Oh, this is along with USA, Mexico, Nicaragua. Mala, Costa Rica, Haiti. That's it right now. Yeah, for now. Yeah. 

Julia Chang 28:10
That. That's a lot. Yeah, that's like a for now. That's, that's a lot. 

And oh. 

Elijah 28:17
El Salvador too, because we are separate. So technically I travel some a lot. Technically, I travel to El Salvador. I haven't really seen the country, but when we were flying back from Costa Rica, we had a stop there. So I've stepped foot in the country, but I haven't explored that counts. 

Julia Chang 28:34
That counts. And then last question. Cats or dogs? 

Elijah 28:39
Dogs, dogs, 100%. 

Julia Chang 28:42
Me to me do. All right. Well, I think that concludes the end of the podcast interview. Elijah, is there anything you want to add? 

Elijah 28:51
No, I think I'm good. Thank you very much. Went through like all of it. Oh, yeah. Also, I have a question. I have a question to all my listeners. I'm trying to get to 2000 followers by the end of the premiere, so if you guys can follow me on Instagram. Chef Elijah 21, that would be amazing. Please. Thank you so much. 

Julia Chang 29:11
Yes, we will absolutely do that. 

Elijah 29:13
It's Bell Chef and then Elijah and then the numbers to one. 

Julia Chang 29:18
Chef Elijah to one. And we'll drop your Instagram in the show notes so that everyone can give you a follow up. 

Elijah 29:27
Thank you so much. That means so much. 

Julia Chang 29:29
We looked at you. You're not far off from that. So just a few more and you're going to get to that, too. 

Elijah 29:34
CAGLE Thank you. 

Julia Chang 29:36
I would have to get there. 

Christopher Chang 29:38
Do you play video games? 

Elijah 29:41
I do play. I'm not really a video games. I know that's like a horrible thing to say because at my age, you should be playing video games. But I'm not really a big video game yet. I'm more of like a TV person or a phone person. I don't really play video games that much if I do that like mobile, but I don't really play like video games on a console. I don't have a game. I don't even have a gaming console, so I don't really play that much video games. 

Julia Chang 30:04
Got it. Well, thank you so much for spending time with us today. We are so excited for MasterChef Junior home for the holidays addition to premiere tomorrow, December 10th. You said 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, eight. 

Elijah 30:23
P m to 10 p.m.. 

Julia Chang 30:25
8 p.m. to 10 p.m., also on Monday. So Sunday and Monday. We're so excited for you, Elijah. We can't wait to see all of this unfold. And no matter what, you are our favorite master chef. 

Elijah 30:39
JR Oh, thank you. 

Christopher Chang 30:43
All righty. 

Julia Chang 30:44
Well, happy holidays and we're going to keep in touch on Instagram. 

Elijah 30:47
Okay? Thank you so much. 

Julia Chang 30:48
Bye bye.