Recipe for success
Douglassville mother and daughter compete in TV’s ‘Top Chef’ and love the results
A mother-daughter duo from Douglassville appeared on a spin-off of TV’s popular reality cooking show “Top Chef.”
And while Hayley and Ainsley Crouse were unable to stave off elimination in the premier of “Top Chef Family Style” on Sept. 9, they won something far more valuable than a cooking contest.
“I definitely made a few lifelong friends out of the experience,” said Ainsley, 12 and a student at Daniel Boone Middle School. “We connected so easily.”
The new show on the Peacock streaming network pits 13 teams against one another in a series of culinary challenges, typically with one team voted off by judges at the end of each episode.
Each team on “Top Chef Family Style” consisted of one child between the ages of 9 and 15 accompanied by an adult, all vying for a $50,000 top prize and other spoils.
Despite the high stakes, along with the pressure of timed competitions, the Berks County duo found their experience on “Top
Chef” enjoyable.
“We’re both eager to see who wins since we got super close with everybody on the set,” said Hayley, a fabric designer and blogger. “We’re still cheering them on and wishing them the best.”
How two locals got on ‘Top Chef’
Ainsley started helping her mom in the kitchen at just 3 years old, and before long she was watching YouTube videos for more cooking tips.
Now, she’s cooking dinner for the whole family as frequently as five times a week — though a little less frequently with school back in session and other extracurricular activities going on.
“I think it came about because she liked picking out the ingredients at the grocery store,” Hayley said, noting her daughter’s strongest dish is either fish tacos or salmon.
Once Ainsley turned 8, she started trying out for cooking shows, initially to no avail.
That’s when “Top Chef” came calling with a unique opportunity.
“They reached out to us this time to see if she would be interested,” Hayley recalled. “We thought it was just for her, but when we found it was for both of us, we were really excited.”
Hayley and Ainsley still had to audition for the show — a process they were not permitted to detail — but once they were selected, going on “Top Chef” together turned out to be another aspect of what made the journey special.
“It was so much more fun than doing it myself, because there would’ve been so much more pressure,” Ainsley said.
What’s it like being on ‘Top Chef’?
Both mother and daughter spoke to the pressures of the competition, an aspect of cooking shows that tends to be overshadowed by the recipes and spotlight.
“It’s definitely intense,” Hayley said. “It’s not your average night cooking at home at your leisure.”
For Ainsley, who sounds almost as concerned with the presentation, keeping an eye on the clock was one of the concerns.
“It’s not the cooking part that takes me a while — it’s the plating,” she said, her
mom adding that Ainsley’s home-cooked meals are often followed by photo sessions.
Still, they stressed what a great experience “Top Chef Family Style” was, from meeting the show’s host, Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor, and celebrity chefs such as Marcus Samuelsson, to befriending their fellow contestants.
“We learned a lot more about cooking and came home with a lot more experience just being together, learning how we worked under pressure,” Hayley said.
“We have a big group chat with everyone that was on the show, and we all just text and chat,” Ainsley said. “Just discussing what we’re
doing, if we’ll see each other soon and stuff like that.”
What’s next?
From the sound of things, Ainsley plans to continue pursuing cooking as more than simply a hobby.
“I like cooking because I get to express my personality and creativity,” she said. “And, also, I like the eating part.”
She hopes to one day open a food truck called Ace’s Place where she would focus on serving a fusion of fresh Californiaand Mexican-style cuisine.
Why a food truck rather than a restaurant?
“I just really like food trucks,” Ainsley said. “You get to drive around, go to different locations and
don’t have to stay in the same place with the same people all the time.
“I just think that food trucks are cool.”
Hayley joked that maybe their mother-daughter team would one day get a chance at redemption on a future edition of “Top Chef” — but if not, they’re content with what they accomplished.
“We were OK with just making it on the show, so going out on the first episode was more than OK only because we were happy for the other people,” she said.
Top Chef Family Style is streaming on the Peacock subscription network with old episodes available on demand and new episodes airing on Thursdays.