Meet Jasmine Stewart | MasterChef Junior Season 5 Winner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jasmine Stewart and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jasmine, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
After winning Season 5 of Fox’s MasterChef Jr., I immediately felt a whirlwind of emotions. While this time was filled with recognition, unexpected opportunities, and extreme gratitude, it was also filled with negative comments, scrutiny, and self-doubt. There was so much positivity that came with being the first Black woman to win MasterChef Jr, but I couldn’t stop myself from focusing on the negativity I received from peoples comments on social media. While there was praise, there was also criticism about howI talked, my skin color, and the food I cooked. As a young girl, this criticism negatively affected my self-image and started to be a breeding ground for insecurity within me. As I was experiencing this, I was also a student in middle school. I realized that while the circumstances were different, several girls my age were also dealing with the same struggle of insecurity and negative self-image, especially in this age of social media. When I told my parents about this dilemma, they reminded me of the platform I had acquired through winning MasterChef Jr and that Luke 12:48 states, “To whom much is given, much is required.” It was from that moment that JustJas LLC was born! I decided to develop my own food and female empowerment company that allowed me to combine my passion for cooking with my message of self-love. Through JustJas LLC. I created my slogan, “Let Your Inner Girl Slay,” which is the underlying theme of the brand, teaching girls to be genuinely unapologetic about their authentic selves and interests. I created merchandise with my slogan to fit women of all sizes, and I also created a bag line entitled GirlBags, providing young girls in particular with an empowering place to hold their feminine hygiene products. Additionally, I shared recipes I developed on my website and social media to teach girls how to make healthy dishes and show them that they, too, can thrive in the male-dominated culinary industry.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
After winning season 5 of MasterChef Junior, my professional life changed forever. I have had several work opportunities in conjunction with the MasterChef Junior brand, such as being a leading cast member on the MasterChef Junior LIVE 16 city tour. I have also appeared as a celebrity guest at Camp MasterChef in Georgia and Connecticut. Additionally, I had the wonderful opportunity to film my own cooking show for Craftsy’s Cooking With MasterChef series entitled “Jasmine’s Delightful Desserts.” One of my favorite projects was the MasterChef Junior Cookbook where several of my recipes from the show were featured. Outside of the MasterChef Junior brand, I was asked to serve on the Junior Chefs Council for Great Wolf Lodge, where I and 5 other teen chefs helped redesign and reimagine the kid’s menu at all Great Wolf Lodges in America. Alongside this, I have been honored to make several guest appearances on the news and other talk shows and be featured in several magazine and newspaper articles. After starting my own company, JustJas LLC, I was hired by several organizations through my company to serve as a keynote speaker and perform cooking demos across the country. I have served as a vendor at conferences selling my products and was even on the cover of South Fulton Lifestyle magazine to celebrate the launch of my own bag line. In full transparency, while I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had, I must say they did not come without challenges. While doing this work, I was still a full-time student and participated in and led many extracurricular activities at my school. In many cases, I sacrificed having a traditional social life and was very isolated from my classmates because I was constantly working. The biggest lesson that I learned along the way is the importance of keeping God first in everything that I do. It’s because of Jesus Christ’s guidance that I was able to make the best decisions about my career (knowing what to say yes to and what to say no to); he kept me safe in all of my travels and experiences, and most importantly kept me mentally anchored reminding me to always move with humility, grace, integrity, righteousness, and kindness whether in victory or in loss. Being in the public eye at a young age is not easy, but by having God at the center of it all and my amazing family by my side every step of the way, I could navigate this lifestyle safely and healthily.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend were in town, I would start by taking her to one of the most fantastic places to visit in all of Georgia, the New Black Wall Street Market, inspired by Tulsa, Oklahoma’s 1921 Black Wall Street. This place has live jazz, events, food, and, most importantly, vendors that feature several of Atlanta’s best up-and-coming businesses. The people there are incredibly kind and sell unique items you would not be able to find in large chain stores. Next, I would have to take my friend to my favorite restaurant in Georgia, Delbar, which serves delicious upscale, modern, Middle Eastern food. I would highly recommend ordering the “Omani Shrimp,” the “Sabzi Polo,” and the “Lamb Kabob,” however, you can’t go wrong with anything on the menu, and the restaurant decor is absolutely stunning. Of course, we would have to do an evening stroll on the Atlanta Beltline to get some fresh air and see all the incredible nature, murals, and artwork embedded into Atlanta. After that, you can’t go wrong with spending some time at the Ponce City Market; I have made some of the best memories on the rooftop of Ponce City Market and would absolutely have to take my friend up there. My friend and I would also have to see a show at the historic Fox Theatre, and, finally, we would be sure to grab a bite at Planta, a plant-based restaurant with innovative dishes that are just as healthy as they are delicious. At Planta, I would definitely tell my friend to order their “Kelp Ceasar,” “House Burger,” and “1,000 Layer Crispy Potatoes.” Now, that sounds like a perfect itinerary to me!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
This is a great question! In all honesty, while I owe a lot of my success to having great parents and great mentors, I would be remiss if I did not dedicate this shoutout to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. I grew up in a Christian-based household, but through the years, I have been able to develop my own personal relationship with Jesus Christ and am blown away by the works that he has done in me. God has served as my firm foundation in the midst of every opportunity I’ve ever had. I am often called on to do cooking demos or serve as a keynote speaker, and before I do, my mom and I typically join together in prayer, firstly thanking God for the opportunity and then asking him to protect and guide me, and he always does. Additionally, in many ways, he has taken the burden of people-pleasing away from me. In the entertainment industry, there are often a lot of people telling you who you are, who you should be, what your next step needs to be, and more. There was a time when I got caught up in this whirlwind of opinions and honestly did not know who I should listen to or who I should be. But God reminded me that when it is all said and done, I live to please only an audience of one, Jesus Christ. This was instrumental to me because I realized it did not matter what my agent, manager, publicist, or even my parents wanted me to do; I had a God-given purpose as to why I was put on this Earth, and I needed to look only to God to see what my next steps should be. One of my favorite verses is Ephesians 2:10, which says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” I am currently a student at NYU and continuing to grow my career, but at the center of everything, I am a child of God, just trying to do the work that he has set out for me to do. So, in totality, I give my shoutout to Jesus for ordering my steps, providing me with wisdom, teaching me humility and kindness, and reminding me that, like Jesus, I am not here to be served but to serve others, which is a substantial guiding principle in the way I see my future.

Website: https://www.justchefjasmine.com/

Instagram: @jasmineostewart

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jasmine-stewart-5330142a2