Before most kids learn how to spell the ingredients in their food, Maxx Koczka was in the kitchen cooking five-course meals for his family with them.
The Burnaby teen has spent a good majority of his life channelling his love for all things culinary.
“Cooking’s my passion, that’s what I’d like to do as my job,” he told the NOW. “I like that I can create my own dishes, it’s a creative thing. I just enjoy it, it calms me.”
While most of Koczka’s time cooking has been making dishes for family, friends or neighbours, he recently got the opportunity take his talents to a national level.
He was one of 16 teens from across Canada chosen to compete in the Chopped Canada Teens tournament for the Food Network.
For those who don’t know, Chopped is a popular TV food competition that pits four chefs against each other to make three dishes in a knockout-style tournament, using a basket of mystery ingredients.
The episode featuring Koczka, titled Lunchbox Letdown, airs on Saturday, Dec. 5.
The episode was actually taped during the summer, and while he knows the results of the show, he’s not allowed to say how he finished.
Though sworn to secrecy until the show airs, the 16-year-old did offer a few details about his experience in the competition.
Koczka said he saw a commercial for the competition on the Food Network and decided to apply, just before the deadline.
After a series of interviews and a lengthy process last spring, he got word he made it into the competition.
Koczka, accompanied by his mother Dezarae, then flew to Toronto during the Pan Am Games to film the episode in July.
“It was just amazing, long but amazing,” he said of the time shooting the show.
The teen explained the kitchen at the studio had ingredients you wouldn’t see in a gourmet kitchen.
“It was impressive what they had,” he said.
And like the show suggests, Koczka literally had no idea what was in the mystery basket before cameras started rolling in the competition.
However, he called on his sporting background and competitive spirit to stay focused on the task. He also relied on years of preparation pretending to be in the competition at home since he was nine.
Now months later, reflecting on the experience, he said he’s even more inspired to continue to follow a path into the culinary world.
Koczka is home schooled and spends three to five hours in the kitchen a day cooking and perfecting recipes.
At the age of three, he was helping his mom in the kitchen, and by eight he was cooking five-course meals.
He also had a veracious appetite for reading cook books at an early age.
Instead of Big Bird, his heroes were culinary luminaries Jamie Oliver and Emeril Lagasse.
“I knew he had something,” his mom Dezarae said, noting she couldn’t keep her son as a child out of the kitchen.
“He’s got a real impressive palate.”
The proud mom said she and her husband have always encouraged their children to follow their interests.
“You have to let them be who they are,” she said.
As for the future, Koczka said he’d like a job cooking at some point but also wants to attend university, possibly for an economics degree that could no doubt help him if he has eyes on being a restaurateur.
In the meantime, he’s looking forward to, and slightly anxious for, his time in the TV spotlight on Chopped.
But keeping it humble, Koczka is just planning a low key night with family to watch his television debut.
For more information about the show, go to www.foodnetwork.ca/shows/chopped-canada/teens/.
To keep up with Kozcka’s cooking, you can check out his page at Facebook.com.
Chicken, mushrooms make a savoury risotto
While Burnaby teen Maxx Koczka can’t say how he finished on Food Network’s Chopped Canada Teens, he can talk about his favourite dish: chicken, sweet pea, mushroom and leek risotto.
Koczka provided the ingredients and steps to making his favourite dish.
First step: I usually do my broth from a roasted chicken or rotisserie the night before. Boil the left over chicken and carcass with your favourite vegetables: I use whatever is in the house – carrots, celery, spinach, always an onion, one bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste. You can use bought chicken or vegetable stock as well, if you do not make your own. At least three hours for flavour. After draining through a sieve pick out the left over chicken pieces to add later.
Second step: Bring the stock on a burner to a simmer in a pot. Put the olive oil and butter in a large pan, add onions, leeks and mushrooms and cook gently for about 15 minutes until soft and tender. Add the Aborio rice, wait for a few minutes without the broth (it will sizzle) and turn up the heat. Do not let the rice and veggies stick to the pan. Keep it moving.
Third step: Quickly pour in the white wine; I use white cooking wine. You will smell the alcohol right away so keep stirring all the time until it has evaporated, leaving rice with a wonderful smell.
Fourth step: Add the stock to the rice a ladle at a time, stirring and waiting until it has absorbed before adding the next. Turn heat to low so rice does not cook too quickly, you do not want the rice to be hard inside (you do not want to cook too slow either) or it will turn mushy. This is a hands-on recipe; you have to be at the stove at all times. Continue to add the stock a ladleful at a time until it has all been absorbed. This should take another 15 minutes and give you rice that is soft but still al dente.
Fifth step: Put on the lowest heat to add your butter, Parmesan cheese and pre-steamed peas and chicken left over. Stir into the rice and serve, adding more Parmesan to your dish if desired.
Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for a couple of days.
This will serve six people.
Ingredients:
olive oil
onion
1 large leek
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup and 1/2 aborio rice
1/4 -1/2 cup white cooking wine
1 litre (maybe 1/2 more) chicken stock
7 tablespoons of butter (1/2 for the beginning, 1/2 later)
1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup sweet peas
leftover chicken
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
