AUSTIN, Texas — Every week on KVUE, we feature a different child in the Texas foster care system, in hopes of helping them get adopted by a forever family.
Enoch, 14, is a freshman is high school. He opened up about some of the hardships he has experienced so far in his young life, as well as his hopes for the future.
We met up with Enoch at the K&N Appliance Gallery on Burnet Road in Austin. The staff was kind enough to allow us to film a cooking segment in their beautiful showroom.
Enoch was accompanied by Texas chef Dylan McShan, who has experience working in kitchens in Houston, New Orleans and San Francisco. McShan shared how he started cooking at a young age with his family. He currently has a catering company, where he serves hot meals across Texas.
He and Enoch made sautéed shrimp and elote salad because Enoch’s favorite foods are seafood and Mexican.
“I really do think cooking can take you wherever you want to go. And if Enoch sticks with it, I really think he can get somewhere with it,” McShan said. “Cooking is all about instincts, and Enoch has them.”
When spending time in Enoch, it’s easy to tell he brings the personality and spice to any room he’s in.
“You know what they say, ‘If you aren’t sneezing, you aren’t seasoning,'” Enoch said.
Enoch and McShan had a great rhythm together in the kitchen, and Enoch opened up about why he has a new found interest in cooking.
“In my past, I grew up with not having that much food. So, coming back up, I remember my past,” Enoch said. “So, you know, I just love food. I have a good passion for it, clearly, as you see.”
He said he’s never really had a true sense of family.
“I’ve never really had a family. I don’t know my regular parents, I don’t know my biological, I don’t even know half my family,” he said. “I have two little sisters, [but] the last time I saw them, I was 7. And it was on their birthday, and I never saw them again.”
To learn more about Enoch or to put in an inquiry to adopt him, visit his page on the Heart Gallery of Central Texas.
KVUE launched the Forever Families segment with Partnerships for Children (PFC) in June 2020 to highlight children in the Heart Gallery of Central Texas who need secure and permanent families. Every day, there are nearly 1,000 children waiting to get adopted in Central Texas, according to PFC.
PHOTOS | Forever Families: Meet Enoch
Editor’s note: The children who are in the Heart Gallery program and featured in KVUE’s Forever Families segments are children who have had every effort made on their behalf to connect them with family or others in their community to provide options for permanent, adoptive homes. Through no fault of their own, that hasn’t happened yet, and so in partnership with the Department of Family and Protective Services, we collaborate to bring awareness to KVUE viewers about these children in the hopes of finding them permanency before they age out.