Fayetteville Today

When Chris Dodson was a boy, his mother taught him a survival skill that he has been making a living with — cooking.

Apparently, she instilled the right skills to bring his talent to light because he recently won the title of Chopped Champion after winning a Food Network competition.

"I think this provides a great opportunity to show them that you can pursue your dreams and become successful,” Dodson told ABC11 when asked what his children could take away from his win. “You know, it's going to give us a chance to all come together, want to take us all to Disney World. Yeah, it'd be great for us just go, have a good time during the summer. Good fun in the sun, you know, experience the magic of Disney World.”

Dodson, who currently works for a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Chicago, didn’t always make money from his culinary expertise. Earlier in his life, he served in the military. He credits his mother, a classic French-trained cook, with passing along her flair for food and helping him take the leap to pursue his dreams.

For his title, he competed against four other chefs for the $10,000 prize, ABC11 reported. When asked about the most challenging part of the contest, he said it was the dessert. "The most surprising food was the squid ink in the dessert. I was like, what in the world am I supposed to do with squid ink for dessert?" Dodson said to ABC11.