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Gordon Ramsay's Advice for Masterchef Jr. Contestants Is Advice For All of Us

Exclusive! Gordon Ramsay and Christina Tosi sound off on what it takes to mentor the kid chefs of MasterChef Jr.

By Lauren Piester Feb 10, 2017 1:04 AMTags
Watch: Gordon Ramsey Spills on Judging Kids on "MasterChef Junior"

Gordon Ramsay may be a professional TV chef, but he's also known for his tendency to tell it exactly like it is to the grown up chefs on his various TV shows, and to also tell it using as many four letter words as he can. 

On Masterchef Jr., however (which returns tonight on Fox), he's got to tone things down just a bit, just to make sure he doesn't have a kitchen full of kids crying at one of his masterful insults. And not only does he tone things down, but he also gets straight up inspirational. 

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"I think what it's done across the country is it starts to reignite the importance of eating well and growing, so in all honestly, I'm firm, I'm fair, I liken myself to like a sort of football coach," Ramsay told E! News when we joined him and Christina Tosi on the MasterChef set. "I say to them the minute they walk into this kitchen, there's no teachers, there's no parents, be you, and give me your best, because finding that passion in life is really important to hold onto. And that level of confidence exudes when they get better at cooking." 

"We're very straight with them, because that's our role as judges and mentors," fellow judge Christina Tosi says. "It wouldn't be fair if we were anything less than that. 

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Ramsay may be so good at working with kids partially because his own kids have also started making waves in the kitchen. His 15 year-old daughter, Tilly, is about to publish her own cookbook, containing about 60 recipes 

"She's quite a natural. She's been cooking since she was the age of five," Ramsay says. "I'm excited. I'm more pissed off she hasn't asked me to write the forward. She doesn't even want to give me a credit in the book. I said to her 'hey, look after the old man. The quicker you get better the quicker I can retire!'"

Tilly's cookbook is actually the least of Ramsay's concerns. 

"I just hope it's another 10 years before she gets a boyfriend." 

Masterchef Jr. premieres tonight at 8 p.m. on Fox.

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