14歲天才大廚養成記：因為我媽媽廚藝太糟糕了

At the age of 14 you may expect burger and chips or pizza to be on the menu， but a teenage chef has wowed the food world so much with his experimental fine dining that he has been taken on by a top Beverly Hills restaurant.

Child prodigy Flynn McGarry has cooked for more than 120 people. He runs a pop-up restaurant with an 18-course tasting menu. He impressed critics and diners over his three-year career which began at the age of 11.

The San Fernando Valley schoolboy will head the kitchen at Beverly Hills’ BierBeisl restaurant with a 12-course meal for 40 people charging $160 a head. It has already sold out.

Dishes on offer will include a sunchoke confit with dehydrated grapefruit followed by smoked sturgeon and beef with wild mushrooms， celery root， black vinegar and coffee.

Rather cheekily the teenager says he was inspired to take to the kitchen because he didn’t like the food his mother， Meg McGarry， cooked.

Thankfully she didn’t take offense and bought her son cookbooks and showed him internet recipes to see if he could do any better. And it turns out he could.

“It was after looking at all these cookbooks and going on the Internet and looking at these dishes that I thought I could achieve that one day，’’ McGarry told the ABC website.

“I thought， every time I try it， I hope to keep getting better and better. I just fell in love with it.”

“My mom doesn’t really like cooking， and when she cooks I don’t really like her food. And I watch something on the Food Network， and I think I can do it”.

“I’ve always been very creative， and I wanted to create my own dishes， and I didn’t know too much about it—but I would do variations from cookbooks and would cook them for my family.”

“Then， I started liking the creative part of it， and I started to cook for more people than just my family.”

The mother and son decided to test his skills with the public and launched Eureka—a supper club that hosts monthly dinner parties inside their home.

Mrs McGarry now describes herself as general manager and reluctant dishwasher. They even built a test kitchen in the teenager’s bedroom so he could reach all the utensils he needs.

“It started off as two tables with some gas burners， my desk and my bed，” he explained.

“But the problem was that I need more space for more things， so I downsized my bed， got rid of my desk. And I have lived there for a year， and I would sleep on my bed， pop it up， do my schoolwork at my work space table.”

“It was difficult because I was 13 and pretty much living and sleeping， and I spent the rest of the time in a kitchen. And when my sister went to college I moved down to her room. Then we went full out with the kitchen.”

McGarry is still in education but is taught via Laurel Springs’ online private school which means he can organize lessons around his cooking. McGarry’s mother says they back her son’s ambition because he exhibited such early passion for cooking.

“‘He is progressing so fast and it is super overwhelming， but it is also exciting，” she told ABC. “You are always proud of your children’s accomplishments. He showed such passion for this that it was an obvious choice to allow him to do what he loves to do.”

14歲的時候，你可能還期待著菜單上的漢堡、薯片和披薩。不過，一名少年大廚在這個年齡已經用他實驗性的精致菜品震驚了美食界，小小年紀的他已接到貝弗利山莊一家頂級餐廳的工作邀請。

少年天才弗里恩·麥克格雷已經為120多名顧客掌勺，經營著一家擁有18套體驗菜單的臨時餐廳。他在11歲就開始了廚師生涯，這3年給批評家和食客留下了深刻的印象。

這名來自圣費爾南多谷的男生將前往貝弗利山莊的BierBeisl餐廳，為40人制作一套12道菜的大餐，價格是每人160美元，并已全部售完。

他將提供的菜肴包括西柚干菊芋醬、煙熏鱘魚、野菌牛肉、西芹根、黑醋和咖啡。

這個有些冒失的少年表示，他之所以開始下廚是因為他不喜歡他母親梅格·麥克格雷做的菜。

不過幸好媽媽并不生氣，她給兒子買了烹飪書籍，給他看網上的菜譜，看他能不能做得比網上的更好。事實證明他真的行。

“看了所有這些烹飪書上的菜之后，我又看網上的那些菜譜，然后我想我能夠做到，”麥克格雷告訴ABC網站記者。

“我想，我每試一次就要比上次做得更好。我簡直愛上做菜了。”

“我媽媽其實不怎么喜歡做菜，她就算做了菜，我也不喜歡她做的東西。我在Food Network網上看菜譜，我想這道菜我能做。”

“我一直是一個很有創意的人，我想創作自己的菜肴。我不太懂這些，不過我會變換菜譜中的菜肴，做給我的家人。”

“然后我愛上了制作菜肴，我開始給家人以外的人做菜。”

母子倆決定試驗一下他做菜的水平。他們開設了Eureka超級俱樂部，每月在他們自己家中舉辦晚餐派對。

現在，麥克格雷女士將她自己形容為總經理，也勉強算一個洗碗工。他們甚至在麥克格雷的臥室里建了一個試驗廚房，這樣他就能拿到所有他需要的炊具。

“一開始這里放了兩張桌子，上面有煤氣爐，還有我的書桌和床，”他說，“不過問題是我需要更多空間放更多東西。所以我把床換成小的，搬走了書桌。我在那里已經住了一年左右了。我睡在床上，白天就把它支起來，在我做飯的地方做作業。”

“這并不容易。我13歲的時候基本就是生活和睡覺，其他時間都是在廚房里度過的。我的姐姐進了大學以后我就搬到了她的房間。我的生活就被廚房占滿了。”

麥克格雷現在還在讀書，不過他是通過勞雷爾·斯普林斯的在線私立學校讀的書。這樣他就可以安排他的讀書和做菜時間。麥克格雷的母親說他們支持兒子的志向，因為他早早就顯示出了對烹飪的熱愛。

“他進步得非常快，非常讓人驚訝，也很令人激動，”她告訴ABC網站記者，“人們總是為自己孩子的成就感到自豪。他對烹飪這么有熱情，很顯然我們應該讓他做他想做的事。”