Estie Kung, 8-year-old TV chef who’ll have you eating out of her hand

Chinese American from Hollywood is youngest competitor on show, about to premiere in Hong Kong, that pits child cooks against professional chefs. She started cooking at three, is a dab hand at Tournedos Rossini, and likes to eat steak tartar and caviar

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Child chef Estie Kung, eight, who was in Hong Kong this week to promote the TV show on which she is a contestant, Man VS Child: Chef Showdown. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 12:00pm, 13 Jan 2016Updated: 12:43pm, 14 Jan 2016

She’s eight years old, Chinese American and a reality-TV chef with her own YouTube channel.
Meet Estie Kung, the youngest competitor on cooking show Man VS Child: Chef Showdown. The cheery youngster was in Hong Kong recently to promote the show from America’s FYI Network, which will premiere on Now TV’s Lifetime channel on January 26. The Hollywood, California, native shares her enthusiasm for food and parties with Vanessa Yung.

Estie Kung shows viewers one of her creations on the show, which each week pits its five child cooking prodigies against a professionally trained adult chef in the kitchen.

I started cooking when I was three. My mom was really helpful and then I started to catch up a lot and get so advanced she has no more to teach me now, it’s me teaching her.

The first dish I ever made, by myself, was called a surprise pie. It’s from a little children’s book recipe. All it was was a Rice Krispies treat crust mixed with some chocolate with a chocolate pudding filling in the centre and some cream on top. We added a few raspberries for fun.

WATCH Estie Kung on The Late Show with James Corden

I was quite happy doing that by myself. It was kind of for me just to see if I could cook and I did really well. So I decided [to do] more advanced recipes and I started to become more of a chef.