Jaycee Slack, a Florida 11-year-old with a life-threatening medical condition, cooks peanut butter and jelly French toast with Las Vegas chef Heather West on Friday. Jaycee saw West win "Hell's Kitchen 2," a reality TV cooking competition, that earned West her job at Red Rock Casino's Terra Rossa Italian Restaurant. The cooking experience was arranged through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Photos by Samantha Clemens. Jaycee Slack, 11, gets a big hug Friday from Terra Rosa chef Heather West, who won the "Hell's Kitchen 2" cooking competition.

You couldn't see the 8-inch scar on 11-year-old Jaycee Slack's back, the graphic reminder of where surgeons took out half of her right lung to keep her alive. And you couldn't tell that she has a chronic digestive problem that can double her over in pain.

Nor was the insulin pump visible that keeps her diabetes in check.

All you could see was Jaycee's smile when she met Heather West, one of the chefs at Red Rock Casino's Terra Rossa Italian Restaurant.

"This is so cool," Jaycee said, giggling as she and West cooked peanut butter and jelly French toast together at the casino eatery.

It was the kind of reaction that the 26-year-old chef -- who won Fox TV's "Hell's Kitchen 2" reality cooking competition to get her job -- prayed for.

"I want to make her happy so bad," West said as she waited for Jaycee to arrive at the restaurant Friday afternoon. "This is such an honor. I'm sure I'm more nervous than she is. For someone who could ask to meet almost anyone, to want to meet me -- just a regular person -- is an undescribable feeling. I cried when I found out that this was her wish."

A couple of months ago the little girl from Florida with a life-threatening medical condition told the Make-A-Wish Foundation that she wanted to spend time with the young lady she saw win a cooking contest on TV.

"Heather is so nice and respectful," she told representatives of the donor-funded foundation that has granted more than 148,000 wishes since its inception in 1980. "She's a good person who worked harder than everybody else. I love to cook so I know we would have a lot in common."

On Friday, Jaycee and her parents, Gretchen and Jeffrey, and her 15-year-old sister, Jayla, arrived by plane from Florida. They live in Punta Gorda, a small city near Fort Myers.

"Jaycee just loves cooking shows and Heather really captured her imagination," said Jeffrey Slack, a site developer.

"We were all rooting for Chef Heather," said Gretchen Slack, a first-grade teacher. "I'm sure she'll want to show Heather how she makes chocolate-covered strawberries."

When she was 6 years old, Jaycee fell into a coma and almost died. She was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. This past summer, when she went into the hospital for digestive difficulties, she also had trouble breathing. Initially, that problem was thought to be pneumonia.

Instead, tests showed she had cystic adenomatoid malformation, a mass of abnormal lung tissue that forms fluid-filled cysts. In addition to respiratory problems, the condition can cause heart distress and possibly become malignant. In August, a four-hour surgery that required more than 120 stitches was done to remove the damaged part of her right lung.

"Before the surgery, Jaycee asked me if I would still think she was brave if she cried," Gretchen Slack said. "I told her even brave people cry."

After three months of recovery, Jaycee still can't breathe entirely on her own.

An oxygen bottle is always nearby.

Tests also have shown that Jaycee has celiac disease, a digestive condition triggered by consumption of the protein gluten, which is found in pasta, bread, cookies, pizza crust and many other foods containing wheat, barley, rye and sometimes oats.

There is no cure for the condition that must be treated with a highly restrictive diet. Even traces of the protein can end up causing abdominal pain and diarrhea.

On Friday, Jaycee didn't want to talk about sickness.

"You're even cooler than you were on TV," Jaycee told West. "I love cooking with you."

"You're cooler than I ever imagined," said West, who greeted Jaycee at the restaurant door with flowers and a teddy bear.

Today, West plans on showing Jaycee around Las Vegas. They're taking a limo to Red Rock Canyon and the Strip. West also has an appointment for Jaycee and her sister to get their hair, makeup and nails done.

Station Casinos is providing the room and meals this weekend for the Slack family at the Red Rock Resort.

As they cooked Friday, Jaycee asked West whether they could make chocolate-covered strawberries together today.

"Absolutely," West said. "I love making anything chocolate. I'll even put chocolate on eggs or steak."

Jaycee's parents were ecstatic as they watched their daughter joking with the chef she so admires.

"She was so excited the last few days about this trip that her blood sugar went up so high that she had to be taken out of school," Jeffrey Slack said.

Jaycee, a straight-A student who dreams of one day being a surgeon like the one who saved her life, hates missing school.

"I love learning," she said.

She also loves what's happening this weekend.

"This is all like a dream," she said. "I can't wait to see all of the humongous lights in Las Vegas with Heather."

West is just as excited.

"Do you know how good you feel when you can help make somebody's dream come true?" she said. "I can tell you right now that this isn't going to end this weekend. I'll always be there for her. I want to help her have the best life she can have."