One local girl is prepping for her dream career.

About a year ago, 11-year-old Kristal Ross began her career as a culinary artist.

Kristal’s mother, Kellie Ross said Kristal is allowed to bake anything she wants as long as all of the ingredients are in the house.

“We encourage her to make lists and go to the grocery store with us,” Kellie Ross said.

The Charles Henderson Middle School sixth grader said her favorite thing to bake is a type of tea cookie.

“My favorite thing to bake is cookies from a little English cookbook,” Kristal Ross said.

According to Kellie Ross, these cookies are healthy so the whole family can eat them.

Kristal can cook anything from cakes and cookies to chili.

In fact, Kristal recently went head-to-head with some of the top restaurants and food vendors in the Montgomery area, such as Dream Land Bar-B-Que and Sinclairs.

She participated in a Chili cook off for charity.

As part of the requirements for the cook off, the participants were required to cook a minimum of 10 gallons of chili.

The participants sold pints of their selected chili, and Kristal made chicken chili.

According to Kellie Ross, eventgoers were also allowed to sample chili after paying an admission fee.

Kristal was required to have a corporate sponsor for the event and Monarch Appraisal stepped up.

While the Kristal didn’t place in the competition she said she did learn from the experience.

“I learned I like to interact with the public,” Kristal said.

“I would like to do another contest, but not that large.”

According to Kellie Ross, one of the main reasons Kristal did an event of such proportion was to see how she interacted with the public.

“She knew she liked to bake, but we wanted to see how she like the interaction part,” Kellie Ross said.

Interaction will be an important part of Kristal’s dream, which is to have a pastry shop.

The contest wasn’t Kristal’s first. She has participated in 4-H contests and even won at one of the Peanut Butter Festival contests by submitting a frozen peanut butter banana pie.

One thing Kristal said she is dying to make is divinity, and one of her grandmothers is going to teacher her during the holiday season.

Although most youngsters dream of what they want to be when they grow up, Kristal has even picked out what school she wants to attend.

“I want to go to the Orlando Culinary Academy,” Kristal said.

And her mom supports her 100 percent.

“I told her I’ll send her to any culinary arts school she wants to go to as long as she completes her four-year-degree,” Kellie Ross said.