Chennai homemaker Deepa Chauhan was eliminated from MasterChef India 2023 on Friday after a week full of challenges and tasks for the contestants. The cooking reality show, which airs on weekdays at 9pm on SonyTV and SonyLIV, got its top eight contestants after Deepa’s elimination. Here’s a recap of the challenges faced by the home cooks this week on the show judged by celebrity chefs Vikas Khanna, Ranveer Brar and Garima Arora.

The Brunch Challenge

For the first task of the week, the home cooks were taken to Bhaikaka Krishi Kendra, an organic farm in Gujarat, where they were divided into two teams. Each team had to prepare a brunch spread with organic ingredients from the farm. Since there were nine contestants, Urmila Asher —the first home cook to be eliminated from the competition— joined this challenge as a guest participant to balance the numbers.

Nayanjyoti Saikia’s pink team won the task by preparing a spread comprising farm fresh pizza, salad, thepla-inspired taco, shrikhand with granola, stir fry chicken, glazed carrot gremolata and an apple-and-orange drink.

75 Years Of Taste Of India

Chef Kunal Kapur, a judge in the previous seasons of MasterChef India, was the guest judge for this challenge. He asked the home cooks to prepare a meal that reflects the culinary diversity of India. The pantry was divided into four zones — north, east, west and south — and contestants could choose ingredients that best represented a zone.

Nayanjyoti, Aruna Vijay, Gurkirat Singh and Sachin Khatwani —who had won the previous challenge— got an advantage in this task. Sachin and Nayanjyoti could take chef Kunal’s help for 5 minutes at any stage of the competition while Aruna and Gurkirat would get an additional 10 minutes in their cooking time.

Santa Sarmah, who cooked an Assamese platter, got a ‘spoon-drop’ from the judges and won the challenge. Priyanka Kundu Biswas’ dish was least-liked by the judges for its lack of clarity and she earned a black apron for this week’s elimination challenge.

A Sweet Surprise

The home cooks were in for a surprise in the next challenge for which they had to “cook with love”. Members of their families dropped in at the MasterChef India kitchen to meet the contestants. It was a teary reunion which made even the judges emotional.

The family members also brought along with them special ingredients for the home cooks. The contestants were asked to prepare a dish with these ingredients. They could ask one member of their family to assist them in the cooking process for 5 minutes.

Santa, who cooked maan dhaniya masor tenga, impressed the judges and won the challenge. Aruna’s appam stew and Gurkirat’s dessert Devil’s Nest (containing a kunafa, bhapa sandesh, blueberry compote and strawberry veil) saved them from this week’s elimination challenge.

Agni Pariksha Challenge

Priyanka, Nayanjyoti, Sachin, Deepa, Suvarna Bagul and Kamaldeep Kaur had to undergo a trial by fire in the MasterChef India kitchen for the elimination challenge this week. On entering the kitchen, they found black boxes on their counter which were set on fire. The challenge required the home cooks to prepare a dish that incorporated fire — either in the form of ingredients or by means of cooking technique.

Lying inside Priyanka’s box was a blow torch, which she had to use while cooking her dish. Kamaldeep received a charcoal grill and Deepa got a smoking gun. Nayanjyoti got yellow mustard seeds from South America as his ingredient. Sachin got wasabi while Suvarna received bhoot jolakia.

Deepa, who made some mistakes while smoking and steaming her fish, prepared the least-impressive dish and was eliminated from the competition.