Catholic school kid cooks up a surprise on TV

Conway’s Ruby Jones a ‘shining star’ in youth culinary world

Published: December 5, 2016

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Food Network

Ruby Jones, 11, competes on the Food Network show “Chopped Junior” during its “Thanks Kidding” episode which first aired Nov. 15. She is a sixth grader at St. Joseph School in Conway.

Food Network

Ruby Jones, 11, competes on the Food Network show “Chopped Junior” during its “Thanks Kidding” episode which first aired Nov. 15. She is a sixth grader at St. Joseph School in Conway.

CONWAY — Ruby Jones is a self-proclaimed dessert girl, with an appetite and ability to bake all things sweet and a personality to match. It would be easy to label this 11-year-old’s hobby of cooking as “sweet” too, but her speed isn’t exactly an Easy Bake Oven.

Watch her turn a slab of raw crown roast of pork and sweet potatoes into a meal of lemon and wasabi pork with sweet potato fries, mixed with sugar, cayenne pepper and white onion. With no recipe, she whips it up within 30 minutes.

“I like that I can use my creativity to create meals,” said Ruby, a sixth-grader at St. Joseph School in Conway. “It’s just like really fun to cook to me, so it’s just something I love to do and like have my own twist on everything.”

On Nov. 15, television audiences watched her skills unfold on the Food Network show “Chopped Junior,” a three-round cooking competition for children. There are four contestants, who are challenged to make an appetizer, entrée and dessert from the mystery foods revealed to them right before the 30-minute timer starts for each round. One contestant is “chopped” after each round when celebrity chef or food expert judges like Alex Guarnaschelli, Sandra Lee and Laura Vitale, who appeared on Ruby’s episode, taste the dishes and then determine who is good enough to make it to the end.

She made it to the final round of the “Thanks Kidding” episode where contestants were challenged to make a Thanksgiving meal and was runner-up.

“My favorite dish to make was probably my entrée because I got to add on my own twist and use more ingredients from the pantry there,” Ruby said. “… I wanted to try and make a new spice rub because I don’t have all that stuff they had there so it was fun to use everything in their pantry.”

Though she just missed the $10,000 grand prize, it was an unforgettable experience.

“I was really excited because I like to watch famous people on TV so it was cool to think that people may be watching me and calling me famous,” Ruby said.

It was her first brush with national fame, but she’s been working her culinary magic with family and friends for years.

“I started cooking with my mom in the kitchen when I was one. I would help her stir, mix and do all that. But probably like two to three years ago I started to cook like really whole meals,” Ruby said, adding she bakes usually once a week and helps cook or is the main cook for dinner every night of the week.

“I like to make any type of cupcakes I can add my own twist on. I made some strawberry limeade cupcakes. I made a vanilla batter and I added a lot of strawberry and lime juice. They were really good,” she said.

Ruby was notified in late April that she’d been selected to compete out of about 5,000 other submissions. The family was sworn to secrecy about the show until shortly before its first airing. Her parents, Darren and Alice Jones, and 13-year-old sister, Ella, flew to New York City in May to tape the show.

“I pretty much just practiced a whole lot. I kind of memorized what went together good, what didn’t go together good,” Ruby said. “Mama made me a few mystery baskets, and I just practiced cooking with random ingredients like a horned melon and anchovy paste. I also cooked with like meats I hadn’t used before.”

While it was a long three days of taping, Ruby said it was a treat to show off her talents on a show she loves and admits, “They make it look way more suspenseful on TV.”

The Jones family, who attends First United Methodist Church in Conway, said winning the $10,000 would have been great, but Darren said they are proud of the way Ruby presented herself on television, from her manners to explaining how she enjoys cooking things for Ella, who has food allergies.

Alice said, “All the things we try to teach her, all the things she learns at church and the things she learns at school and how to treat people, to me it all came through on that show.”

St. Joseph principal Susie Freyaldenhoven said Ruby is an “excellent student.”

“I can definitely tell you Ruby is a shining star,” Freyaldenhoven said. “We’re just really very proud of her and her accomplishments with ‘Chopped Junior.’ … I think we’re going to have to invite her to bring some of her treats here at school.”

Ruby said the United Methodist Youth Benediction is a prayer that is special in her life because, “it tells you that the Lord is always with you and he can help you do anything.” It’s a fitting prayer because after her television debut, her future culinary goals are nothing short of shooting for the stars.

“I want to work six weeks as a chef and then six weeks as an astronaut, or I can be a space chef. I can cook on the rocket ships,” she said.