‘MasterChef Junior’ kid hunts her own food, including alligators
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Avery Kyle won’t just cook you dinner, she’ll catch it too!
The pig-tailed fourth grader — and finalist on the fourth season of “MasterChef Junior” — is a seasoned angler, sets up crawfish nets in the bayou behind her Baton Rouge, Louisiana home and enjoys hunting alligators with her family.
“My first time hunting a gator, I shot him but then I felt really bad for some reason,” she tells FOX411. “I just sort of tricked him and I felt really bad.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Avery, who is nine years old and currently writing her first cookbook, prefers to fry or grill her gators.
“It’s really hard to cook,” she says. “If you overcook it, it can be really rubbery and chewy. You have to cook it really well to have it taste good.”
“Hurricane Avery” — a nickname assigned by her by culinary mentor William Wells — included images from her first kill in an audition video sent to Gordon Ramsay’s kiddie cooking competition last winter.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Producers were immediately wowed by her down home southern charm, boundless confidence and larger-than-life personality.
“One time when I was about the age of six, I caught a fish as big as me,” she regales in a hometown TV interview. “When I was reeling the fish in, I go, ‘You’re goin’ down with some french fries!’”
Avery will square off Friday night against fellow nine-year-old Addison Osta Smith in a final challenge to claim the $100,000 grand prize and become the show’s first ever female champion.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“We both really wanted to win,” she admits.
“I remember before we [taped the episode], we both said ‘Look, one of the A’s is gonna win. We should just be happy for the A that wins.’”
The “MasterChef Junior” finale wasn’t the first time the close friends fought head to head.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}While taping the series last spring, they challenged each other to a now infamous race in the hotel pool.
“I think I won,” Avery laughs. “Addison says it was a tie.”
Avery — a straight A student and aspiring lawyer — began cooking at age 5.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She learned mostly from her parents who help her prepare family dinner “four to five” nights a week.
“We are her sous chefs,” father Ronnie Kyle jokes. “I have to clean up after her.”
Outside the kitchen, Avery focuses much of her attention on theater.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She has performed in numerous school plays and hopes next to land the role of young Cosette in a community production of “Les Miserables.”
“In a couple more years, I would like to be in a movie or in commercials,” she says — even if that means leaving behind the comforts of the bayou, where Avery is now a local celebrity.
She’ll be surrounded by dozens of family, friends and fan when the winner is finally announced.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I have fought for my place in the finale,” Avery says in a promo for the episode. “So Addison better watch out because Hurricane Avery is coming through. I’m ready to take that trophy.”