The next Julia Child?
Perhaps. But Julia didnt start her career as a gourmet cook until she was well into her 30s. Madison Vanduch, the daughter of Ginger Thomson and Jay Vanduch of Brookings, discovered a passion for cooking when she was little more than a toddler.
Something of a food phenom, Madison has been cooking and baking for more than half her life even though shes only 12 years old.
Now, the soon-to-be-seventh-grader at Mickelson Middle School has taken over the family kitchen she makes up the menu and prepares the daily meals and has developed her culinary artistry to a level where shes already winning prizes.
Its no passing fancy, her mom explains. She just loves spending time in the kitchen.
If shes not in school, at piano lessons or cheer, youll likely find Madison at home, whipping up the familys evening meal or baking a loaf of bread from scratch.
And its not mac n cheese or hot dogs that the pre-teen is cooking. In fact, Madison prefers to use only healthy, organic ingredients. Obesity is epidemic in the United States, she explains, and she wants to do her part to keep herself and her loved ones healthy.
For example, she rarely cooks with ground beef, preferring instead to use ground turkey.
Madisons interest in food came at an early age, said her mom, Ginger. Instead of dolls, she played with pretend food and created menus on the computer. We bought her an Easy-Bake Oven when she started showing an interest in baking, but she only used it once or twice, then went straight to the normal oven in the kitchen.
Thomson says that her daughter did not inherit a chef gene from either her or her father. Ginger admits shes not much into cooking and baking, and husband Jay (who does enjoy his pots-and-pans duty) did most of the food preparation until their daughter elbowed both of them out of the kitchen.
She just took over, Thomson says, and now she cooks the evening meal every day, and the weekends, too she does all of it. We come home and theres a nice, hot meal waiting for us.
While Madison the family calls her Madi occasionally starts with a recipe, she usually takes creative control, adding a dash of this and a hint of that.
She doesnt seem to have favorite dishes to prepare, though I think her Asian pork dumplings yes, she makes the dumpling wrappers from scratch are especially good, her mom says.
Madison also likes to create recipes using anything from the super food category. This includes blueberries, oatmeal, walnuts, beans, salmon, sweet potatoes, spinach, garlic, and dark chocolate.
She also likes combining spices to make dry rubs for meat and creating marinades. She recently made a Vietnamese chicken curry which included turmeric.
(Turmeric) contains a compound that fights inflammation, so it has natural healing properties, Madison explains.
On Sundays, Madison tries to develop the weeks menu, which occasionally includes an ethnic theme. Recently, during German week, she prepared schweineschnitzel with whole wheat spaetzle, salzburger nockel (German pancakes) and strawberry butter kuchen.
Her Irish menu last month featured homemade corned beef for which she brined a beef brisket for seven days. The family reports she also makes a mouth-watering Persian rice dish as well as her 14-year-old brother Carsons new favorite, a sausage, bean and corn fajita.
She once made Chesapeake-style crab cakes from scratch for entertainers Williams and Ree.
Prefers to make it herself
In the past, Madi has resisted using anything prepackaged, including tortillas.
She would make her own, because she didnt like the artificial ingredients in many store-bought foods, says Madisons dad. However, she has found a few items that offer healthy alternatives so she is willing to buy those for the sake of convenience. The other day at the grocery store she found some healthy pasta made of quinoa, so she tossed it with olive oil and garlic.
Madison is probably one of the few 12-year-olds anywhere who own their own KitchenAid stand mixer (a birthday gift from her grandmother), Cuisinart food processor and stainless steel pasta roller.
Kari Graven, a visual and culinary artist from Brookings, is a longtime friend of Madisons mom. As Madison became more serious about cooking and baking, Kari became a mentor. In March, Kari invited Madison to share cooking tips and recipes on her weekly radio show with local personality Grant Peterson. That led to regular appearances on the show.
Peterson has been so excited to have the middle-schooler on his program that he even added a tab on his website, grantsgas.com, so Madi can start adding her recipes.
On a recent program, Madison explained how to butterfly, with kitchen shears, a Cornish game hen and prepare it for grilling.
Much of Madisons culinary prowess comes from watching cooking shows on the Food Network, and her dad suspects that may be his daughters ultimate goal in life: to become the next Rachael Ray.
One day last summer, I came home from work and found Madison making homemade soft pretzels, Thomson said. She had the DVR remote control in one hand and was cooking the pretzels in baking soda-infused water with the other. She was baking right along with Alton Brown on Good Eats, her favorite program.
After watching Brown make a roast turkey on TV, Madison asked to re-create it for Thanksgiving dinner. She brined the bird overnight in vegetable stock and added other herbs and spices before oven-roasting it to perfection.
She has been rewarded for her culinary efforts, having won both first place in her division and best in the youth/teen category in the 2009 and 2010 Childrens Miracle Network Cake Challenge in Sioux Falls. The Challenge is judged by Food Network celebrities.
She still enjoys baking and decorating cakes, though her cooking interests have continued to evolve.
Madison says that attending school gets in the way of being in the kitchen, but after school and on weekends, its not unusual for her to spend all of her time in the kitchen, going from one dish to the next.
She might start her Saturday by making homemade granola bars, then move on to baking bread or rolls, whip up a pie (with homemade crust), start a pot of soup, season and roast some vegetables, then delve into a dinner entre like fresh grilled salmon or moo shu pork, said Thomson.
Thomson says she and her husband find it difficult not to boast about their pre-teens culinary capabilities.
I havent had to cook for years, which is perfectly fine with me. However, my husband really enjoys cooking so hes had to put that hobby on the back burner, so to speak. Smiling, she added, When friends hear about Madis interest, most ask if shes for hire.
Its an interest thats already lasted years, and Madi has talked about going to the Cordon Bleu school to become a chef, or perhaps becoming a dietician or food service director. Its more likely with her personality and skill, shell wind up on the Food Network, says her dad, who owns a TV production business.
Were very, very lucky to have such a talented daughter who is so passionate about cooking at such an early age. Its amazing for my husband and I to come home from work and smell the aroma of delicious, nutritious homemade food made by our 12-year-old!
This article was prepared with information provided by Ginger Thomson.
Can't keep Madison out of the kitchen
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