It all started when Flynn McGarry was 10. He was not a fan of his mother's cooking, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. He began by experimenting with simple meals, but he was soon ready for more of a challenge.

He went to a bookstore and picked up The French Laundry Cookbook, 320 pages of recipes and stories about cooking by chef Thomas Keller. "It was the biggest cookbook they had," Flynn told TFK. Reading that book, he says, was his first step toward becoming a chef.

Top Chef in Training

Flynn spent the next four years learning from top chefs and perfecting his craft. With his parents' help, he even turned his bedroom into a kitchen. Why does he need the extra cooking space? Once a month, Flynn, now 14, opens a restaurant in his home, in Los, Angeles, California. He invites about 20 guests at a time to sample eight to 14 of his best dishes.

Flynn devotes two hours each day to developing new recipes. First, he chooses the main ingredients. Then he tries out various ways to prepare the ingredients until he is sure the dish has the best possible flavor. According to Flynn, the most important parts of a dish are the salt, the crunch and the acid.

One day, Flynn hopes to open his own full-service restaurant. For now, the young chef knows he still has a lot to learn. "With cooking, everything is constantly changing," he says. "That's the thing I really like about it."

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