Cooking with Chef Hector

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PRINCETON — You’ve never met a kid like 9-year-old Hector Gomez of Princeton.

Just one step into his “home appliances” room at his house on South Euclid Avenue supports that statement. It’s a tiny room that looks more like a home appliances store, rather than a fourth-grader’s favorite hobby.

Gomez proudly points it all out — on one tall shelving unit sits his juicer, his food processor, his blender, a food sealer, a toaster, a s’mores maker, a deep fryer, a hot dog cooker, hamburger maker, a grilled cheese machine and an electric mixer.

“All this stuff is actually mine,” he said, smiling. “This I got from my dad for Christmas, it’s a rotisserie. This is my salad bowl set; this is my fajita maker. This is my beverage fountain. That’s my bread maker; and that’s my ice-cream sandwich maker.”

Nearby a box contains his recipes for appetizers, salads and soups, main dishes and beverages, some of which he’s made up himself.

“We don’t buy video games; we buy household appliances,” said his mother, Peggy Gomez, laughing.

Oh, yeah and then there’s his deep freezer taking up one wall. He received it as an early Christmas gift last year. Why did it come early? He needed a place to store all his breads and baked goods he makes every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, which he also happens to make himself. For New Year’s, he makes Japanese sushi, a family tradition he learned from his mother.

Hector, with help from his sister Margarita, 7, demonstrates his familiarity in the kitchen while talking and baking an apple-cinnamon quick break from a box.

“We need three cups of water. Preheat oven to 350 degrees,” Hector said reading the box. “We have that glass loaf pan right? Can you grease it? You just have to grease it lightly,” Hector tells his father, Hector Sr.

He has enjoyed cooking since he was 2 years old — right around the time most kids get an affinity for reading books or saying three or four words in a sentence, Gomez was making cookies to send to his father, while he served in the military in Iraq.

“I’d use my food sealer to seal them, and that way they’d be fresh when he got them,” Hector said.

It was his father who taught him to cook as a child, so he could be self-sufficient. In fact, as he puts it, he’s made just about everything you can think of, and he’s probably right. He’s made hamburgers, chicken strips, cookies, cakes, ice cream, homemade macaroni and cheese, chili, juices, smoothies, chicken, homemade popcorn, homemade bread.

In fact, he even rises early before school and makes his family breakfast including waffles, pancakes, eggs with ham and hashbrowns.

“He makes two things I really enjoy, upside down pineapple cake, and he also made a frozen soufflé,” Margarita said.

Aided by his father, who helped chop some ingredients, he won the Princeton Chili Cook-off Contest put on by the Princeton Park District, winning the Spiciest Chili and the Cook’s Choice Award.

“If you ask him if he wants to be a chef he says, ‘No, I want to be a head chef,’” his mother said. “He wants to own his own restaurant, his own business.”

On top of it all, he also happens to be a great salesman ... for Tupperware. Recently he held his first Tupperware party at his house with six guests. He’s managed to take $700 in orders for Tupperware in October and nearly $200 orders for November already, all by going door to door and to businesses in town. Due to his efforts, he won a $300 Tupperware set given only to party hosts.

He’s also looking forward to taking a Tupperware class on candy making in early November.

Apparently, he just can’t seem to grow up fast enough. His mother learned that firsthand after receiving a call from Robert Morris College in Chicago, which has the Institute of Culinary Arts.

“He went online and checked out what would be cheaper, living in a condo or a dorm. They called; they didn’t realize how old he was. They said he was welcome to come, and I said ‘Uh-uh. He’s only 9!’”

“Most parents have to monitor their kids going on the Internet for other reasons, I have to watch mine because he applies for college,” she said laughing.