Local 12-year-old advances to final round of national cook-off

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Abijah Levy Minor is a sixth grader at California Virtual Academies, and he's been in the kitchen since he was a little boy.

"I enjoy making people happy with my meals, and I also like to have fun in the process of cooking," said the 12-year-old, whose mom said his passion was noticeable at a very young age.

"I used to put him in the chair when he was too small to stand, and then as he got bigger and could stand, I put a stool next to me and had him get his hands in whatever I was making," said Abijah's mother Orite Levy.

Abijah's hobby and the Raw Alaska he prepared earned him a spot in the final round of the 2025 K12 National Cook-Off.

Out of more than 400 students who applied, Abijah and four other young chefs have advanced to the final round to be held in Arlington, Virginia.

There will be two rounds. In the first round, he will have one hour to make an entrée after blindly drawing an ingredient card.

"I'm excited, I'm nervous, I'm scared," Abijah said. "I'm proud of myself."

For the first round of the competition, Abijah has no idea what he's going to make, but for the second round, he'll have 30 minutes to make a dessert, and he's already decided on creating a trifle.

"I'm so happy at the young man that he's becoming, and how brave he was to just throw himself into a new situation without any thought to, 'Who cares what happens? I'm just going to do it,'" said Levy.

Abijah says his biggest supporters have been his parents, who have made a lot of trips to the grocery store for him.

"Scallops and beef tenderloin and duck breasts," said Abijah, listing some of the ingredients his parents have bought him. "They've both gone to these stores and bought these things, even though they're expensive, just so I could practice for this moment."

Abijah and his father will fly to Arlington next week to compete for the $1,000 grand prize, but they say, whatever the outcome, he's already a winner.