MasterChef Junior launched its seventh season with 24 talented home cooks between the ages of 8 and 13 and whittled it down to the Top 3: Che Spiotta, Malia Brauer, and Ivy Angst, who competed in the series finale on Tuesday night.

The victor was Che Spiotta from Boiceville, N.Y., who was 12 when he started filming the show and is now 13. He won over judges Gordon Ramsay, Christina Tosi and Aaron Sanchez with a menu that will make your mouth water: an appetizer of pan seared Santa Barbara prawns and cuttlefish on a bed of polenta with Calabrian chili powder; a veal saltimbocca with finger potatoes and a spring pea ragout with mushroom jus entrée; and a flourless chocolate, olive oil cake with an orange glaze, fresh ricotta cream and pistachio tuile for dessert.

Che Spiotta (CR: Greg Gayne / FOX.)

Che said for the finale, his thought was: “No risk, no reward.”

“If you don’t put your all into it and try your best, you are not going to get anything out of it,” he told Parade.com in this exclusive interview. “That is definitely what I did in the finale. I went all out with what I cooked and how I did it. I do that a lot in my life. You’ve got to put your all into it. If you don’t, you won’t get the right results.”

Ivy, Che and Malia (CR: Greg Gayne / FOX.)

Along with the honor of being named MasterChef Junior comes a trophy and a $100,000 check, which goes into an account that Che won’t be able to access until he is 18, but he is actually more interested in what he learned while filming than the money.

While he still hopes to open his own restaurant one day – definitely Italian, which is his comfort food – being on the show opened another career option for him.

“I definitely want to have a restaurant at some point in my life, but being on the show, I realized how much I love cooking shows and being on TV, so I am thinking having my own cooking show one day would be a really cool thing to do,” he says.

Congratulations. What did you do to celebrate your win?

Right after we filmed it, we had a party at a restaurant with my family and a couple of the contestants. It was really fun. They were all super excited and congratulating me. We had a really good time and enjoyed the rest of that day.

How hard has it been to keep the secret?

It has been really, really hard. I have kept the secret for about a year. It has been ridiculous to keep it a secret from all my friends. It was hard but I’ve gotten used to it. Now, I am so excited that it isn’t a secret any more.

You came in with a lot of knowledge, but what is something new you learned?

I learned a lot of things from the demonstrations that Gordon or Aarón would give, but also, not in the cooking sense, I learned all the things that Gordon teaches you when he critiques your food or when you are cooking with him, like you learn to really believe in yourself, to put you on a plate, and to have confidence. When he critiques you, you learn so much from every dish that he sees.

Did you practice at home before the audition?

Definitely, I cook a lot day-to-day, so all those times, I am really practicing. But I really did. I cooked a lot those last couple of days. I was just cooking the normal things I cook: breakfast for my brothers, the occasional dinner, I probably made some tomato sauce.

Che Spiotta wins MasterChef Junior (CR: Greg Gayne / FOX)

What was the toughest challenge for you this season?

The hardest one by far for me, was definitely the restaurant takeover challenge. It was so stressful. For three people to run the appetizer and entrée service in a two Michelin star restaurant is crazy. It was hot in there. There was so much work to do. You have Gordon expediting. It was super difficult, but also one of the most fun challenges.

What do you plan to do with the $100,000 prize money?

I am not entirely sure yet. I will definitely save some of it. I will get a nice gift for my mom because she helped me so much through the whole thing. She was out in L.A. with me and she organized everything, so I will get her a nice gift.

You mentioned getting the “culinary revolution” started in the finale. What is that?

It is that I am ready to come into the culinary world and bring change to it and make it a lot better.

I thought maybe it had something to do with the fact that you are gluten free, so you want to do a restaurant that is gluten free.

That is what I meant by bringing change to it. Introducing more gluten-free restaurants around the world and making it a bigger and more delicious thing.

There are foods that you can’t eat, but are there any foods you can eat that you don’t like?

Not really. I get that question often, but I like most foods. I like everything really. It’s just the foods I can’t eat that I don’t like.

How did you get started in the kitchen?

I started cooking when I was really young, three or four. I got into it because of being gluten free and there weren’t a lot of things that I could eat. Back then, there wasn’t a lot of gluten-free stuff, so I would experiment with things I could eat. My dad and I would use the things we could and try to experiment to make it different and better. I started growing from there and I realized how much fun cooking is and how creative it is. I just love everything about it.

When you cook for the family, do you have to use ingredients in the fridge, or is there a shopping trip to make sure you have the ingredients you need?

Most of the time, it is just stuff in the fridge, but if I am lucky, Mom will let me come along grocery shopping and get a couple of things I like to cook with. But my mom is very good with that. If I give her a head’s up that I want to cook this thing, most of the time she will help me out and get some of the stuff.

Gordon Ramsay and Che Spiotta (CR: Greg Gayne / FOX)

How often do you make breakfast or dinner for the family?

I do it as often as I can but with school, and I play soccer, and I like hanging out with my friends, so it is hard sometimes. It depends weekly. Most of the time on the weekends, I will cook the most because I have free time. Sometimes, I will cook three meals on the weekend. I will cook breakfast, lunch and dinners. Then there are some weekdays, I won’t cook at all.

Do you have a favorite dish?

Risotto is by far my favorite thing to cook. I love the process of it and I love how it tastes. I love a good seafood risotto.

Will you and Gordon stay in touch?

I hope so. He is super cool. I would love to cook with him instead of for him. I think that will be fun.

Which other contestants will you stay in touch with?

I think I will stay in touch with all of them. I see them as much as I can. They will be friends of mine for forever.

MasterChef Junior is doing camps this summer. Have they asked you to be a part of that?

I am appearing at one in Connecticut for four days. All they had to do was tell me I was cooking and I was, “I’m in.”

One of the fun things about the MasterChef kitchen is they have all kinds of ingredients, including very expensive proteins. Was there anything like that that you were able to try that you wouldn’t normally buy?

Definitely. The amount of fresh fish they have there, is not an option up here, but the fact that they have everything in that pantry is so cool. They have anything you can imagine to cook. They have the best meats, the best fishes, they have gold leaf, they have spices, they have truffles, and they have amazing cheeses. That was really fun to work with. Anything in my imagination, I could make.

Who washes the dishes at your house?

My mom makes me wash the dishes when I cook because I make a mess when I cook. I use so many things at once, but they help out a lot. Dishes are a hard thing to do.