{"id":23167,"date":"2017-02-24T03:43:10","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T11:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=23167"},"modified":"2017-02-21T22:24:53","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T06:24:53","slug":"balin-wins-chopped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/02\/24\/balin-wins-chopped\/","title":{"rendered":"Balin wins Chopped"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justine Balin had to think quickly on her feet to win Chopped Teen Canada<\/em>. (photo from<\/em> Chopped Teen Canada)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Vancouver Grade 12 student Justine Balin recently walked off with the top prize at Chopped Teen Canada<\/em>, leaving the reality television show with a $10,000 award for dishes she prepared at the studio kitchen last June. \u201cI\u2019ve watched the show forever, so to be on it was a dream come true, and winning was the cherry on top,\u201d the King David High School student admitted.<\/p>\n

Balin entered the competition last summer at the encouragement of Hilit Nurick, her food instructor at school, and had to pass a series of interviews before learning she\u2019d be one of 16 teen contestants accepted on the Food Network program.<\/p>\n

Balin and her mother, Jennifer Shecter-Balin, flew to Toronto for the taping of the show, which consisted of three rounds in which each contestant was given a mystery basket of ingredients and asked to prepare a dish of their own creation.<\/p>\n

Balin\u2019s first basket contained canned flaked ham, gorgonzola cheese, dried tart cherries and chocolate mint cookies. \u201cThe ham threw me off a bit!\u201d the 17-year-old said. \u201cI\u2019ve never had that before. But I made a salad and used the ham, cookies, herbs and egg in a patty to go with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That dish sent her to the second round, where her ingredient basket included clams, wasabi cocktail sauce, dehydrated vegetables and watermint. Her resulting concoction was a seafood soup with watermint pesto and grilled bread.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey knew she was Jewish,\u201d said Shecter-Balin, \u201cand when they presented her with tinned ham and gorgonzola, I thought to myself, she\u2019s lost it. But to see her think quickly on her feet and come up with a flaked ham fritter \u2013 I was beyond impressed!\u201d<\/p>\n

Balin\u2019s dessert dish was cookies and cream ice cream with June plum compote and caramel brittle.<\/p>\n

Cooking has been a passion since she was a child, Balin said. \u201cEven at age 2, I was helping my mom, stirring the pots. At 5, I started cooking with my mom and grandma, Linda Shecter, and I never stopped. Even now, I\u2019m always in the kitchen, often making dinner for the family if I come home earlier than my mom. And, every year, I host thanksgiving for 20 girls in my grade.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her application, Balin made it clear she was Jewish-Italian and communicated her pleasure in attending a small, independent Jewish day school that also offered a foods program.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing Jewish is a strong part of who she is and we weren\u2019t going to gloss over it,\u201d Shecter-Balin said. \u201cBut dietary restrictions mean nothing on this show \u2013 they spare no one. I\u2019ve seen vegetarians being forced to work with protein and people of different cultures being forced to prepare foods they\u2019d never usually prepare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balin said she would recommend the show to any teens who can perform well under pressure, who love to cook and who feel confident in front of a camera. \u201cIt\u2019s scary to be on national television cooking but it was such an incredible experience,\u201d she said. \u201cThe best part was seeing how a show like that operates. They build a story and want you to stick to it. I found it really interesting to see how the show runs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balin is saving her prize money to travel the world after she completes her university studies in public health.<\/p>\n

Lauren Kramer<\/strong>, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.<\/a> This article was originally published in <\/em>CJN.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justine Balin had to think quickly on her feet to win Chopped Teen Canada. (photo from Chopped Teen Canada) Vancouver Grade 12 student Justine Balin recently walked off with the top prize at Chopped Teen Canada, leaving the reality television show with a $10,000 award for dishes she prepared at the studio kitchen last June. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6782,6781,3584,6780],"class_list":["post-23167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-balin","tag-chopped","tag-cooking","tag-reality-tv"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}