Student chef makes Top 9 on "MasterChef"

USM senior Whitney Miller reached the Top 9 on Wednesday in the new FOX series "MasterChef." The 23-year-old from Poplarville, Miss., is the youngest contestant on the show. If she wins, she receives $250,000 and the opportunity to publish her own cookbook.

"I haven't taken any cooking classes or anything," said Miller, who learned her way around the kitchen at age 12, when she and her two sisters were given chores to help prepare meals.

"We all had our duties in the kitchen, and I think I enjoyed it more than any of them," she said. "Starting in ninth grade I cooked every night for my family."

Despite this, Chef Gordon Ramsay, one of three judges on "MasterChef," was hesitant to put Miller through even the first round of auditions for the show, when they were selecting 50 amateur chefs to participate in the competition. Miller said that she has felt pressure to prove herself ever since.

"I've been cooking since I was young, and I'm also very competitive," she said. "They see this sweet person on the outside but not the competitiveness."

Whether they see it or not, the competitiveness is there. Miller has continued to impress the judges since making the Top 14.

"My proudest moment was the first time we stepped into the ‘MasterChef' kitchen as the Top 14—I won our first challenge," she said. "No matter how I did past that, I got to prove this first round that I have what it takes."

The young chef said that when concocting new recipes and presenting her food, she utilizes the creativity she picked up from her mother. She learned the "Southern basics and Southern hospitality" from her great-grandmother.

"I try to keep to my Southern roots," Miller said. "This past episode (Aug. 18) I cooked Southern fried pork chops."

Miller also consulted recipe books and the Internet to help her learn, and she begged her parents for DirectTV, so she could watch the Food Network.

Now, with about ten years' worth of experience, Miller has a restaurant in Poplarville called Glaze. She changes the menu every week, with one exception.

"The only thing that stays the same is shrimp and grits, and that's every Tuesday," she said. "Everybody told me that they would kill me if I took it off."

A recurring menu item is "Brittyn's Birthday Cake." Brittyn Miller is Whitney's younger sister and a junior at USM, studying business and marketing. "Brittyn's Birthday Cake" consists of angel food cupcakes stuffed with cream cheese, condensed milk and strawberries, and topped with homemade whipped cream.

"She started off making it because she made it for my birthday," Brittyn Miller said. "It was so popular when everyone came for birthday parties. People come into her shop, Glaze, and they will just order dozens of them."

Brittyn Miller works at her sister's shop, managing the finances and business. She also watches "MasterChef" at the shop with her family on Wednesday nights.

"My whole family and friends, we all watch it at Glaze every night that it comes on," she said. "And we watch it, and we talk, and we're all yelling and intense."

Brittyn Miller went with her sister to auditions for "MasterChef" and was excited to see her make it onto the show.

"It was just something that I thought she deserved," Brittyn Miller said. "She's just an awesome cook. I just wanted people to know that and appreciate her."

"MasterChef" airs on Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. on FOX.