Mark heads to the MasterChef kitchen starting February 9, 2017 as he appears on MasterChef Jr Season 5. More information...

A Starkville 7th grader takes his cooking skills to a national audience.

Family and friends gathered at Restaurant Tyler in Starkville Tuesday night to watch 12-year-old Mark Coblentz make his television debut on the Food Network’s cooking competition, “Chopped Junior.”

Starkville native Mark Coblentz, 12, will make his debut on national telelvision as he competes on Tuesday night’s episode of the Food Network’s Chopped Junior.

Mark Coblentz can remember going to his grandmother’s house when he was about 2 years old and helping her make cookies.

It’s a late Monday afternoon, and Mark Coblentz is hungry. Sporting his lucky cap, the seventh-grader moves between refrigerator and kitchen cabinet with the sliding glide preteens tend to perfect.

Mark Coblentz, 12, of Starkville, stirs up TV interest in the Food Network’s latest spin-off series, “Chopped Junior” this season.

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- A Starkville seventh grader is taking his cooking skills to a national audience. Mark Coblentz, 12, is part of the cast of the Food Network’s upcoming series “Chopped Junior.”

Bright new faces of the culinary world give it their all in this Chopped competition for the next generation

The stakes will be big, but the competitors small as junior chefs ages 10 to 14 compete for a chance to earn the title of Chopped Junior Champion on the new series Chopped Junior, premiering Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 8|7c.

Mark cooks on WCBI Mark heads to WCBI and  MidMorning with Aundrea to show how to cook his Béchamel sauce with shrimp. Watch both segments...