tonight meet a young man preparing lamb loin, eggplant carnitas, tortellini, every week in one of new day in the city without planning my life around food. ♪ i'm talking bodegas, food carts, fresh marks, fine dining. every block in every borough is packed with its own flavor. a restaurant surviving the frenetic food scene of the big apple is no easy task. some of the greatest culinary minds have been kicked to the curb. and these days there's a new chef in town looking to be king. literally. enter chef lynn mcgary. >> a mackerel dish -- >> reporter: at just 19, lynn has the keys to his own kitchen at gem in downtown manhattan. >> this is the stew. this was on the menu last night. we're going to give it a try. >> this is delicious, man. >> go for it. >> yeah. >> reporter: the kid from malibu started chasing his dream early. >> this is all i ever wanted to do. there was never a moment where i was like, do i do this, do i do something else? it always felt natural. >> reporter: at only 10 years old, before most kids are allowed to use an oven unsupervised, mcgary began teaching himself to

. >> cheese tortellini, add a litt cherry tomatoes and i actually chopped up some cheese sticks to putere as extra protein. broccoli e've got a salad, which is to die for. >> do you think these kids will eatthat? >> i do. >> reporter: a nice try, but we'll be the judge of that. meet first grader ella, second grader jack and sixth grader avery. >> it looks presentar:e. >> reporut does it win their affection? the blt goes to avery. the lettuce and tomato equal one of her servings of vegetables too. and jack jumps on the peanut lltter apple with chocolate milk while eats cucumbers.e they sampl and swap. >> i wouldns do this iad of that. getting a : carrots hard pass, while the chicken salad lettuce wraps are presented in an appealing enough y they'll give it a try. >> i like everything not tor.hing each ot >> reporter: we quickly learn the kids like almost everything and are even willing to eat veggies or grain.y avoesn't want the popcorn but would prefer more vegcaes e much to my surprise she does like the broccoli salad. >> it doesn't taste like broccoli. >> it doesn't? it's good? >> wr