Published: March 2, 2017
Neuser brings culinary skills to classroom
Stint on ‘MasterChef Junior’ continues
tonight
ndettmann@conleynet.com
262-306-5043
Sydney Neuser is finding out what it’s like to
be on national television and Fox’s reality cooking series, “MasterChef
Junior.”
On Wednesday morning, she was at Fair Park
Elementary School, assisting the special education class with cooking some
treats for staff members.
During that time, several teachers popped in
to see the progress, but also to see Neuser and snap a photo with her as she
wore the signature apron from the show.
“It’s been pretty amazing,” she said. “I’ve
usually watched myself on a video on a phone, but then on TV, it’s so much
different.”
At Fair Park, Sydney helped a class of about
20 students with three dishes — a smoothie, cheesy hashbrowns and an omelette
cup. It was part of a program started about eight years ago by Fair Park
teachers Becky Sohm and Matt Durant called “Made by Me.”
“We started about eight years ago and just as
a way to get kids to use their reading skills, their math skills, their social
skills, their functional skills, everything,” Sohm said. “The kids make lunch
twice a month. Then we sell it to the teachers for $3 and we deliver to the
teachers.”
The proceeds go toward field trips for the
students. The program is an opportunity for the kids to apply what they’re
learning in reallife situations.
“It was something different,” Sohm said.
Over the years, the program has welcomed
several community members from within the district to help. On Wednesday, it
was Sydney’s turn.
After the cooking was done, the students asked
Sydney questions such as how old was she when she started cooking? How’d she
got on the show? What inspired her to cook?
Then they watched some snippets from the show
on projection screen.
Neuser is one of 18 junior chefs between the
age of 8-13 still in contention on the show, which airs its next episode at 7
p.m. today.
When the season premiered Feb. 9, there were 40
junior chefs. For the Feb. 23 episode, the field was down to the top 20. Two of
those 20 chefs have been eliminated, leaving the show with 18 for tonight’s
episode.
“I’ve been making a lot of new friends because
of it,” Neuser said. “People have been asking me for autographs and people are
recognizing me in public places and that’s pretty cool.”
Before the season premiere, Neuser’s mom,
Angela, was worried about how several hours and days worth of taping would be
condensed into one-hour episodes. So far, she’s been pleased.
“I’m pleased that the editing is done purposely
to make the kids look good, to show the kids in a positive light, which is
really good,” Angela said.
She was also pleased with how last week’s
episode played out on TV.
On the day of the filming for the season’s
third episode, Sydney had a high temperature and had to leave the set a few
times to take medication.
Angela was happy to see the show was edited in
such a way where Sydney’s health struggles weren’t shown.
Sydney was in only a few snapshots during the
episode.
“Looking at it, you wouldn’t have known she was
sick,” Angela said. “I was worried they would show footage of her breaking down
or walking off; she had to walk off to take medication. I was afraid they would
do something like that to cause drama, to show drama, or to show (cohost)
Gordon (Ramsay) in a good light because he pepped talked her and got her back
going again. But they didn’t, they edited around her, you didn’t see her at her
time of weakness, which was good as a mom. I was glad to see that.”
In the weeks since the season premiere, Sydney
has been extra motivated to do things in the kitchen and go to different
restaurants to try different cuisines.
“It still feels unbelievable,” Angela said
about watching her daughter on network television.
Per legal obligations, Angela and Sydney can’t
disclose what is going to happen in upcoming episodes.
What they have learned is all the memories of
people leaving the show and what it felt like at that time are returning.
The families weren’t together long, but they
spent a lot of time together both on and off the set. So, in last week’s
episode, to see the two junior chefs be eliminated, Angela said the sadness of
seeing them go returned, even though they knew it was coming.
“We became very close,” Angela said. “Every
time a kid got eliminated, a friend was leaving. So all those feelings come
back. (Sydney) was sad. Solomon and Elisabeth got voted off and they were good
friends of ours, and Elisabeth and her mom were there with their little baby
and we had to say ‘goodbye.’”
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