Some children dream of buying an expensive gaming system, or a fancy cellphone, but 14-year-old Andrew Smith dreams of butchering beef tenderloin and cooking up a really nice piece of fillet mignon.

"I wanted to cook that this Sunday, but it turned out to be $100 at the supermarket," Andrew told The Royal Gazette in a telephone interview.

"It didn't work out. I will probably make something along the lines of a pasta dish with a nice pan sauce."

Such are the challenges of being a master junior chef on a teenager's allowance.

Andrew from Sacramento, California, is one of several junior chefs coming to the Island to teach the Jr. Chef Kids Culinary Conference at CedarBridge Academy on April 4.

The master junior chefs were taught at Junior Chef Central, a cooking school run by a Bermudian living in California, Karla Lacey-Minors.

"The only event of its kind in the world, the Kids Culinary Conference promotes the practice and importance of making healthy food choices," said Ms Lacey-Minors.

"It will be presented in a kid-focused environment.

"The sessions are designed to help kids make smart food choices, teach them independence and self-sufficiency, and build their confidence, and advance their culinary knowledge."

Andrew has taken classes with Ms Lacey-Minors for about five years, some of them week long courses during school breaks.

"During one school break we took a trip to Bermuda and filmed a Junior Chef television show pilot," he said.

The next summer he and four other students were allowed to help Ms Lacey-Minors with her classes. They received a stipend of $50 each.

To call himself a master junior chef, Andrew went through an elite series of classes that lasted five months.

"It wasn't as much about the recipes as about techniques which is really important," he said. "You can make one thing from a recipe, but you can make infinite things from a technique.

"We learned how to, not just specifically what to do."

He said his favourite techniques involve making sauces.

"You can learn how to make a pan sauce from a steak with butter and a flour mixture or you can learn how to make the mother sauces including béchamel, hollandaise, or like a mayonnaise or a reduction sauce."

He said the elite course was also an intense look into where food comes from.

"We went to a slaughter house where they packaged lamb and things," he said. "They had the lamb on site and killed it and butchered it and packaged it.

"We were lucky enough to not have to see them kill the lamb. We just saw big hunks of the lamb legs. Surprisingly, there was not any blood."

But he said it wouldn't have mattered if there had been blood. Nothing at this point could change his mind about cooking.

"I was already so deep into being a chef I don't think anything could make me turn back now," he said. "If you butchered a chicken before you have pretty much seen the lamb."

He still has three more years in high school before he has to go off to university.

At the moment, he is hoping to go to a culinary school in San Francisco.

"There is a fair amount of opportunities for people my age to cook," he said. "I have interned at two restaurants. One is called The Waterboy.

"The other is called Tres Hermanes Inc. That was very exciting. The Waterboy was actually in preparation to go to Bermuda the first time.

"It is pretty upscale. I would say it is Californian food, Caesar salad and pizzas, but all on an upper scale."

He would really like to intern at the Waterboy again.

"That was really my first step into a restaurant to not order but to make the order," he said.

"We helped the chef prep stuff for the rush hour dinner, and peeled potatoes, but it was still being introduced into the environment."

He first became interested in cooking a long, long time ago, when he was seven years old.

"When I was seven or eight I liked helping my father cook pancakes for dinner in the kitchen," he said. "It was little things where I really wasn't doing much, but I was still there and getting to see how everything happened.

"I like the idea that you can get something that tastes so great, and you can please your friends and family out of such little ingredients."

He said when he was younger he use to cook a lot for the family, but now the high school life doesn't allow for that.

"I am pretty much limited to Sunday meals," he said. "But I am fine with that because it is a really relaxed time.

"When I don't have to worry about time constraints and do what I need to get done."

Ms Lacey-Minors said that with Bermuda's focus on health and fitness, and concerns about childhood obesity, it's vitally important that children know not only what to eat, but how to feed themselves.

"And as peers are a great influence on young people, we're bringing in three of our best Jr. Chefs to teach them the skills they need to do so," she said.

She said she was particularly excited to be bringing the conference to Bermuda.

"Bermudian youngsters, like their peers around the world, are extremely interested in learning how to feed themselves and their families," she said.

The conference features 'hands on' cooking classes taught by Master & Elite Jr. Chefs from California, a session with a professional food editor & stylist (also from California), and a fun and informative class with Bermudian nutritionist on separating nutrition facts from fiction.

"Our Junior Chef instructors are ages 12, 13 and 14, and have more than 12 years experience between them," says Ms Lacey-Minors. "Local chefs from the Bermuda Chefs Association will also be participating to make sure everyone has fun and stays focused."

Participants may register for one session: 8 am to 11 am; 11 am to 2 pm; 2 pm to 5 pm.

The cost to attend is $85 per person, and includes all classes and a Jr. Chef Apron.

"Thanks to our sponsors — The Argus Group, Bermuda Chefs Association, Butterfield & Vallis, Fresco Group and the Healthy Schools programme, the fee is only marginally more than what we charge for the same program in the US," said Ms Lacey-Minors.

"The commitment to kid's health by these local businesses and organisations also allow us to offer a limited number of partial scholarships for those who cannot otherwise afford to attend."

Held at CedarBridge Academy, the Kids Culinary Conference is a non-profit event.

Space is limited and advance online registration is required at www.jrchefcentral.com. Details are online or can be obtained by calling (916) 691-4323or http://jrchefcentral.com/09Bermuda.html.