Bengaluru-based nutritionist Priya Vijan got eliminated from cooking reality show MasterChef India 2023 this week following a series of tasks assigned by celebrity chefs —Vikas Khanna, Ranveer Brar and Garima Arora. The show, which airs on weekdays at 9pm on SonyTV and SonyLIV, now has its top 10 finalists competing for the MasterChef India title. Here’s a recap of the tasks that challenged the contestants this week.
Test of culinary knowledge
On the first day of the week, the home cooks had to participate in a quiz which would test their culinary knowledge. A question would pop-up on the screen in front of the contestants and they had to write their answers on a slate. The person who gave the correct answer first got a shot at choosing their core ingredient from a display counter placed next to the judges’ table.
Once all cooks received the ingredient of their choice, the judges introduced a twist — a locked box containing a steamer was kept on their table, and the contestants had to use it to make their dishes. Aruna (who made carrot marble cake with halwa & cream cheese frosting) and Kamaldeep (who cooked sorghum hummus with salad, falafel and steamed bread) were the winners of this task, earning immunity from elimination this week.
Food truck challenge
The home cooks were taken out of the MasterChef India kitchen to the Powai Bar Bank, which is a food truck park. The nine contestants (excluding Aruna and Kamaldeep) are divided into teams of three — red (Priyanka, Nayanjyoti and Suvarna), blue (Gurkirat, Deepa and Santa) and green (Sachin, Nazia and Priya) . They are asked to run a food truck and sell their dishes to actual customers in exchange of MasterChef currency. In the end, the team with the highest earnings would be declared winners.
The red team selected Asian cuisine while the Blue team got Mexican. The green team settled for American cuisine and the competition began. Priyanka, Nayanjyoti and Suvarna struggled to steam their baos which ate into their time. Gurkirat showcased his sales skills by offering free hugs to every customer who came to their food truck. The green team struggled to keep pace with the huge demand for their fried chicken.
The judges tasted the food from all the three trucks and liked the Asian platter of the red team the most. However, their slow pace in the beginning hit their sales and they secured second position in the task. The green team earned a lot of currency but Sachin failed to transfer them all into the cash box on time. They came third in this task. The blue team were declared the winners.
‘Cooking by Ear’ Challenge
The home cooks were back in the MasterChef India kitchen for their next challenge. Walking into the kitchen, they found their counters separated by a wall in between. In this task, they had to cook in pairs and communication was the key to winning. The two cooks in every pair must prepare a dish that looks and tastes exactly the same only by communicating with each other through the wall.
Priyanka and Nayanjyoti were the yellow team, Nazia and Sachin were part of the red team, and Suvarna and Priya formed the blue team for this challenge. From the word go, Nazia and Sachin struggled to communicate their thoughts with each other. Sachin was the dominant member in the pair and Nazia failed to keep pace with his instructions. Suvarna and Priya, meanwhile, chose to play it safe and came up with a simple dish with only two components.
Priyanka and Nayanjyoti worked seamlessly in a coordinated fashion. They had clarity of thought and their communication skills were on point. Even during plating, they used the clock as a reference point to discuss the placement of all the components. Their dish was almost a replica, both in presentation and taste, making them the winners.
The Black Apron Challenge
Sachin, Priya, Suvarna and Nazia — the bottom four contestants this week — faced elimination in this week’s black apron challenge. The judges asked them to prepare a dish that reflected their journey in the MasterChef India kitchen. They were given five minutes to collect their ingredients from the pantry.
However, a surprise twist was waiting for them. As soon as the home cooks collected their ingredients, they were asked to swap their basket of ingredients with another contestant.
Priya, who is vegan, got Nazia’s basket which mostly had meat-based protein products. Nazia got Sachin’s basket which consisted of ingredients for a dessert. Sachin got Suvarna’s basket which had the ingredients for a Maharashtrian platter, while the latter got Priya’s basket which only had vegan ingredients.
Choosing not to cook with animal protein proved to be a costly decision for Priya as the judges were not impressed with her dish, which contained only rice and lentils. Thus, the journey of the Bengaluru-based nutritionist in the MasterChef India kitchen came to an end.