Jr. Cuisine Show News

OP family creates 'Jr. Cuisine Cooking Show'

One Orland Park family seems to have found the recipe for success with a new cooking show for children.

"The Jr. Cuisine Cooking Show" is the brainchild of Cherise Ragland. A concept inspired by youngest daughter Kierra, who had a devout interest in cooking as a child, Cherise struggled to find a program available for her to begin honing her culinary skills.

"There was everything else, but what about kids who love to cook?" Cherise said. "She would watch Rachael Ray and Emeril [Lagasse], make a grocery list and make the food at home. I just thought I have to get something for her."

Elgin girl cooking on PBS show

By JULIE MULLEN Grace Campbell gave her best over-the-shoulder pose for photographers as she walked the red carpet into the premiere for her new TV show. The PBS correspondent can charm the press and seemingly handle any question thrown her way. An amazing feat, many would say, for a girl who is all of 8.
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Northern People: Local kid on PBS cooking show

By Marta Hepler Drahos

TRAVERSE CITY — Mychelle Hopkins wasn't surprised to learn that Tuuli Qin-Terrill was selected to star in a new PBS kids' cooking show.

"She is an unusual talent," said Hopkins, education director for the Old Town Playhouse, where Qin-Terrill has performed in half a dozen shows with the Traverse City Children's Theatre. "She's very prodigious; she has been very mature in her abilities for a long time. She's one of those kids that you say, 'OK; she's going to do something.'"

He wants his MTV

Pulse: North Central College professors aren't surprised that graduate Kevin Manno will be hosting MTV's new daily program "Live at 5" beginning Sept. 20.

"When he was at (North Central radio station) WONC, he was filled with boundless energy and had a passion for music and for his listeners," said John Madormo, assistant professor of broadcast communication. "Since his graduation, Kevin has been a great representative of North Central by his willingness to speak to our broadcasting classes and inviting our students to Q101 for tours. His new opportunity with MTV is well-deserved."

Top junior chef
Move over "Top Chef," two young Naperville cooks are ready to hit the kitchen on TV.

Kids love eating, singing, dancing, and watching television. Put them all together and you have the broadcasting brainstorm of the Ragland family of Palos Park, Illinois. When daughter Kierra displayed a passion for cooking at 7 years old, watching the famous TV chefs, and helping out in the kitchen, parents Cherise and D’Shaun searched for fun and educational programs directed at children displaying the same enthusiasm as Kierra. Finding none, they founded USA Cooking Camps, Inc., in 2007.

The Raglands developed their idea into a proposal for a children’s television series centering on the culinary arts, nutrition, safety, and sanitation. Add a huge helping of bright, attractive, talented kids singing and dancing and you have the makings of a hit children’s television series!
In March of this year, the Raglands packaged their proposal and took it to public television. The response was positive, so the Raglands marketed it through facebook, recruiting kids who like to cook, can sing, dance, and act. More than 1,600 children responded. The Raglands assembled a panel of judges who winnowed the number of applicants to 200 and they invited these prospects to an audition at Macy’s Department Store in downtown Chicago. They called back 80 for a second audition to fill the 16 cast positions.

Lombard girl becomes cooking star

By Eleni Demertzis

Lombard, IL — Cooking, singing, and dancing. All three are activities Charlotte Graham enjoys best. Her dreams became reality last month when she found out she would be a cast member of a new PBS special, “Jr. Cuisine Cooking Show.”

“My mom and I thought it’d be perfect for me to do what I love on a TV show,” Charlotte said. “I love performing ... and I really like being part of a music group.”

Charlotte’s other passion has been cooking, usually helping her parents with dinner or decorating cakes.

This show makes it possible for Charlotte to combine everything in one.

By Liz Hoffman

The Emmys didn't air until Sunday night, but on Friday, 16 Chicago-area kids glitzed and glammed it up on a red carpet of their own.

"The Jr. Cuisine Cooking Show," a new half-hour PBS program hosted by kids and for kids, premiered at Showplace Icon theaters in the South Loop. The 16 cast members, ages 8 through 15, arrived by a limo and dressed to impress, walking a small red carpet outside the theater lined with family, friends, and this Chicago Parent editor.

The show is more than six years in the making, and is the brainchild of D'Shaun and Cherise Ragland, a husband-and-wife Chicago music and television production team.

chicago — Casting Call Held at Macy, 111 N. State St., Downtown Chicago This May

This summer, Macy’s Culinary Studio in downtown Chicago will open its doors to the Jr. Cuisine Cooking Show – airing on PBS TV. Casting Calls are being held from 10am-7pm on May 8th, 15th, and 22nd. The Jr. Cuisine Cooking Show is looking for talented kids between 6 -14 yrs old who love to cook, sing or dance to join their cast.

Cherise Ragland, Executive Producer and Founder of the Jr. Cuisine Cooking Show, is excited for the premier of the show this summer on PBS; “We are so excited to introduce the Jr. Cuisine Show as the first of it’s kind. We will use the culinary arts as a platform to educate our youth on current issues that are very relevant to our communities.”

Kids cooking show the first of its kind

Chicago will get its first home-grown, independent PBS TV series in 30 years – a kids’ series at that – when the “Jr. Cuisine Cooking Show” premieres Aug. 28 on PBS outlet, WYCC-20 at 11 a.m.

The premiere episode will tape this week with the 15 permanent cast members who were selected from among some 1,000 youngsters from 36 states who auditioned for the show.

The show is targeted to children 7 to 14 and their parents.

Stars of “Jr. Cuisine” are bright, talented eight-to-14 year olds who love to cook, sing and dance and who, as it turned out, come mainly from far Chicago suburbs.

Producer and creators of “Jr. Cuisine” – the first kids-for-kids TV cooking show – are music producer D’Shaun of Red Dove Record Productions and his wife Cherise.

New TV show has local kids cooking

By DONNA VICKROY.
Who better to teach kids about healthy foods than other kids?

Orland Park resident Cherise Ragland recently saw her longtime dream come to fruition. The founder of USA Cooking Camps Inc. is executive producer and founder of a new televised kids cooking show aimed at expanding the palate and culinary skills of youngsters across America.

"I have to pinch myself that this is really happening," Ragland said.

"The Jr. Cuisine Cooking Show," filmed at Macy's Culinary Studio in Chicago, debuts at 11 a.m. Aug. 28 on WYCC-TV (Channel 20).