MasterChef India S7- Daily Discussion Thread - Page 8

I was baffled with Priyanka’s team selection, she selected Priya over Kamaldeep and Avinash? Her first three selections should’ve been Shanta, Sachin and Kamaldeep, considering Aruna had already chosen Deepa and Nayanjyoti (I think).

Also, what was the point of selecting Dyuti, when she already was there to make the dessert (and from Sachin’s insta I saw he makes a lot of cakes as well).

Aruna’s selection was spot on - she chose Deepa first, she knew Deepa has experience and knowledge of international cuisines. She got Vineet, whose playing skills are exceptional. In the end she even got Kamaldeep, whose dishes are usually in the top few.

The red teams menus seemed well thought of and to me also more interesting. Also, the thought of the time given to them.

Starter - I quite liked the red teams dish presentation wise, looked colorful. Also ricotta and olives is a classic combination, Zucchini is a vegetable that needs very little cooking time.
the green team took a big risk in choosing polenta. While I love polenta, it’s not something everyone will like. Then they added no cheese and used cashew (cream, I guess), which could have made it heavy. Thankfully it worked for them.

Mains - the moment I heard pizza, my first thought is will they be able to bake so many pizzas on time? Again while the fig and balsamic vinegar combination is not new to the west, it sure is new to India. Will it work? Also, is there enough time for the yeast in the pizza dough to work? Pasta in my opinion is a relatively safer dish when you have to prepare so many plates, only because the sauce is ready in one batch and pasta is also boiled in one go. Yes shaping pasta may be time consuming, but there are workarounds (choosing basic shapes, using cutters, etc). So red team gets my point here.

Dessert - limoncello tiramisu (red team), I’m waiting to see if they’ll use any coffee in this. I guess they won’t but they’ll soak the sponge in lime syrup and add some lime zest in the mascarpone and cream layer. I think this could be winning dish. For the green team I only heard lemon ice cream and strawberry reduction or something. Not sure how they plan on serving two sour things together.

coffee bit - I forgot what both are doing (only remember biscotti from the red team, but we’ll leave that for tomorrow.

Team performance - Red team - Aruna very nicely assigned two people to each of the courses (while someone from the dessert team had prepared the biscotti dough). Aruna could go about helping everyone. And they all seemed to be doing what was expected. They were all calm and composed. Also helps that she got the mature cooks.

Green team - division of tasks was done, but there was no clarity, I could see people helping out in multiple courses at the same time. Priyanka seemed to be stuck with Priyas dish only, to the point that she didn’t know what was happening with other dishes. Even after the judges were telling her, she continued doing what she thought she should do. I think when they were running short of time to serve the antipasti, Sachin literally left his dish and kind of took charge. Clearly leadership failed here.

Since we now know the red team will win (from the promo), I can say the green team failed mainly due to a weak leader. In last weeks team challenge, atleast the leaders were strong.

When Priya and Priyanka were talking about the polenta sauce, that's where the downfall of the team began. Even Sachin's comment while planning complete Italian level of food, was stupid lol. Lol, the meat-heavy thing was funny lmao.

Can I just say how much I love watching Garima as one of the judges of MCI. It's surprising that it took a change of channel for them to bring a female chef to the show. I absolutely love how no nonsense and straight to the point she is. I think after having hosted multiple seasons of MCI, both Ranveer and Vikas have become a bit dramatic and kind of plays for TV and they haven't been able to leave that behind. Garima on the other hand is there for the competition, not the emotional drama. I loved the way she shut Suvarna the other day and was stern with Priyanka in the precap yesterday. I like how she is strict and sweet whenever needed.

Originally posted by: MinionBoss

I'm going to disagree with you partially. See based on the comments from the tasting, Baa had a better tasting dish than Yashu, but they were all being judged on three things - taste, replication, and presentation. Baa only hit one of those points on the head. Yashu hit 1 fully (presentation) and 1 partially (replication). So overall, he did "score" more than Baa.

I do feel like today they also eliminated Baa because they know she wouldn't be able to last in the kitchen as the pressures and techniques got more complicated. It isn't fair, but I do understand why they did that as well.

I do have several other names of people who should be evicted in coming weeks. Just based on this week alone I can already name a few people who are not strong - Yashu, Priya, Survarna, and Gurkirat are the first 4 on that list of mine. Priya got safe because of the group she was in warna she wouldn't have been saved. Suvarna and Gurkirat have their moments which made them safe. And Yashu in general I feel is a weaker contestant mostly because he doesn't have that experience.

@bold- I agree with this. It would definitely have been quite challenging for her to go on with further challenges and most of the things are out of her comfort zone. And since she is very experienced as well as a very senior person somewhere they can't behave with her as they do with other contestents. I knew she would eventually get eliminated but didn't think it would be this soon.

For now I feel Yashu and Priya are quite weak and mostly would be eliminated this or next week. Priya got saved purely due to team challenge. Agree regarding Suvarna and Gurkirat. They do shine in certain challenges. Gurkirat sometimes I feel is not that serious about competition😆 apne maze mein rehta hai voh banda. He has potential but seems too chilled out

Originally posted by: MommaMomma

Can I just say how much I love watching Garima as one of the judges of MCI. It's surprising that it took a change of channel for them to bring a female chef to the show. I absolutely love how no nonsense and straight to the point she is. I think after having hosted multiple seasons of MCI, both Ranveer and Vikas have become a bit dramatic and kind of plays for TV and they haven't been able to leave that behind. Garima on the other hand is there for the competition, not the emotional drama. I loved the way she shut Suvarna the other day and was stern with Priyanka in the precap yesterday. I like how she is strict and sweet whenever needed.

I agree but, also, I think this is a refreshing change for them. Ranveer's personality outside of MCI is really endearing. He is someone who values stories about food. His intelligence and empathy shines through. If there were any possibilty of doing a Bourdain-esque food discourse in India, it would be Ranveer and perhaps Thomas Zachariah. It's a shame that he doesn't get to express himself as much as he could.

Star's MCI smacked of American style scripted reality shows. They were so bitter and half the time RB seemed annoyed af. RB is not made for reality show, he excells when it's a well-researched docu style show. Where he gets to tell stories and histories rather than deliver lines to create drama. He'd a great, great educator.

Garima is breathtaking tbh. Her presentation on using Thai ingredients to cook Indian food is how organically cuisines actually develop. She definitely is ❤️

Originally posted by: MommaMomma

Can I just say how much I love watching Garima as one of the judges of MCI. It's surprising that it took a change of channel for them to bring a female chef to the show. I absolutely love how no nonsense and straight to the point she is. I think after having hosted multiple seasons of MCI, both Ranveer and Vikas have become a bit dramatic and kind of plays for TV and they haven't been able to leave that behind. Garima on the other hand is there for the competition, not the emotional drama. I loved the way she shut Suvarna the other day and was stern with Priyanka in the precap yesterday. I like how she is strict and sweet whenever needed.

Agreed with you.

I do feel that it took a change of channel for the reality show-ness to leave as well. Ranveer and Vikas seem more real this time around. They can openly critique food and they aren't hiding behind kind words.

Ranveer, in general, is a kind person, but here he's still being able to say what's on his mind openly. I love how yesterday he told Priyanka that she was already late and that this is a restaurant and her customers are waiting. On SP, he wouldn't have said that.

I do feel though that so far, Sony's MCI has been a bit more challenging as well and more fair so far. Like their pantries aren't overflowing so that everyone gets everything they want. They have had some interesting challenges so far. And they aren't wasting their time on repeatedly showing people's emotional stories or making judges "cry" for the sake of crying. The emotions shown so far seem more organic and now the story is only about how contestants are doing in the show, not their outside stories.

Originally posted by: bhshre95

@bold- I agree with this. It would definitely have been quite challenging for her to go on with further challenges and most of the things are out of her comfort zone. And since she is very experienced as well as a very senior person somewhere they can't behave with her as they do with other contestents. I knew she would eventually get eliminated but didn't think it would be this soon.

For now I feel Yashu and Priya are quite weak and mostly would be eliminated this or next week. Priya got saved purely due to team challenge. Agree regarding Suvarna and Gurkirat. They do shine in certain challenges. Gurkirat sometimes I feel is not that serious about competition😆 apne maze mein rehta hai voh banda. He has potential but seems too chilled out

Gurkirat is too cute I gotta say. He is serious, but he just looks lost and then comes out shining. It's fun to watch his IVs during his cooking because what he says in those is exactly what it looks like in the challenge.

Priya definitely. Her soup was so spicy (at least based on what judges said) that if this was an individual challenge she would have been out last week, not Baa. Let's see what happens tomorrow. Her team is going into elimination task.

Originally posted by: Raina101

I was baffled with Priyanka’s team selection, she selected Priya over Kamaldeep and Avinash? Her first three selections should’ve been Shanta, Sachin and Kamaldeep, considering Aruna had already chosen Deepa and Nayanjyoti (I think).

Also, what was the point of selecting Dyuti, when she already was there to make the dessert (and from Sachin’s insta I saw he makes a lot of cakes as well).

Aruna’s selection was spot on - she chose Deepa first, she knew Deepa has experience and knowledge of international cuisines. She got Vineet, whose playing skills are exceptional. In the end she even got Kamaldeep, whose dishes are usually in the top few.

The red teams menus seemed well thought of and to me also more interesting. Also, the thought of the time given to them.

Starter - I quite liked the red teams dish presentation wise, looked colorful. Also ricotta and olives is a classic combination, Zucchini is a vegetable that needs very little cooking time.
the green team took a big risk in choosing polenta. While I love polenta, it’s not something everyone will like. Then they added no cheese and used cashew (cream, I guess), which could have made it heavy. Thankfully it worked for them.

Mains - the moment I heard pizza, my first thought is will they be able to bake so many pizzas on time? Again while the fig and balsamic vinegar combination is not new to the west, it sure is new to India. Will it work? Also, is there enough time for the yeast in the pizza dough to work? Pasta in my opinion is a relatively safer dish when you have to prepare so many plates, only because the sauce is ready in one batch and pasta is also boiled in one go. Yes shaping pasta may be time consuming, but there are workarounds (choosing basic shapes, using cutters, etc). So red team gets my point here.

Dessert - limoncello tiramisu (red team), I’m waiting to see if they’ll use any coffee in this. I guess they won’t but they’ll soak the sponge in lime syrup and add some lime zest in the mascarpone and cream layer. I think this could be winning dish. For the green team I only heard lemon ice cream and strawberry reduction or something. Not sure how they plan on serving two sour things together.

coffee bit - I forgot what both are doing (only remember biscotti from the red team, but we’ll leave that for tomorrow.

Team performance - Red team - Aruna very nicely assigned two people to each of the courses (while someone from the dessert team had prepared the biscotti dough). Aruna could go about helping everyone. And they all seemed to be doing what was expected. They were all calm and composed. Also helps that she got the mature cooks.

Green team - division of tasks was done, but there was no clarity, I could see people helping out in multiple courses at the same time. Priyanka seemed to be stuck with Priyas dish only, to the point that she didn’t know what was happening with other dishes. Even after the judges were telling her, she continued doing what she thought she should do. I think when they were running short of time to serve the antipasti, Sachin literally left his dish and kind of took charge. Clearly leadership failed here.

Since we now know the red team will win (from the promo), I can say the green team failed mainly due to a weak leader. In last weeks team challenge, atleast the leaders were strong.

@ Bold: THIS! I just kept watching the team selection bit and screaming at Priyanka's choices! Aruna was smart. She chose people who had a strength in every area. Priyanka literally has 3 people strong in desserts - herself, Dyuti, and Sachin. I think Aruna kept letting Kamaldeep go because she understood that Priyanka wouldn't choose her so she knew that she would be able to get Kamaldeep at any point. She wanted to get the others first.

@ Red: Agreed here. Garima said it succinctly in the precap for today - I'm not the leader of the green team, get out here and start leading. Priyanka was all proud that she became captain of a team, but she completely failed. In a way this does set up future group tasks though. We know now that Deepa, Shanta, and Aruna are all strong captains, while Priyanka is not. If the first 3 ever become captain again, then contestants will love working for them, but if Priyanka becomes captain again, then someone else will step forward and take over or her group will fall apart.

Originally posted by: Deltablues

Okay first up; most of the judges on the panel including Vikas (from a lower middle class family) have been educated and trained in culinary sciences. The stories of their tiny catering businesses or Ranveer working at ustaads' in lucknow are inspiring and beautiful but it's not like Vikas jumped to Junoon straight from his catering business in Amritsar.

If these shows, including MCA, were fair or actually useful, they'd train the contestants alongside. Most of the MCA contestants live in a house with a high-end kitchen set-up with stacked culinary literature. Here the pressure test in the very first week seemed unbalanced and unfair tbh. Dessert vs savoury will always favour the savoury cook because it allows improvisation. If all they are looking for is pastry techniques and/or European techniques, then they should drop the schtick of the Indian home cook and make it a competition of culinary students/apprentice like hell's kitchen.

Because by these criteria, even Ranveer's ustad sa'abs will get eliminated in the first week of the competition by Ranveer himself

Sometimes I feel MasterChef is not for normal home cooks. It gives way too much importance to innovation, techniques, presentation and food eaten outside India jo real world setting mein nahi fit hota. Mostly the kind of food usually served only in 5 star restaurants and that would cost a fortune for normal people. For normal middle class conventional chefs its a tough competition. Most of the chefs here kind of seem trained to me. I am not telling home cooks won't know different cuisines but these contestents seem to know too much. Or probably I am too oblivious to the different cuisines. I didn't know names of most of the dishes they planned yesterday for Italian meal😆 Italian bologe toh mujhe bass pizza pasta yaad aata hai and probably a couple of more dishes. But contestents know about the food as well as the technique to make it and all.

I don't know if I made any sense😆 Probably I am not able put it in words

Originally posted by: MommaMomma

Can I just say how much I love watching Garima as one of the judges of MCI. It's surprising that it took a change of channel for them to bring a female chef to the show. I absolutely love how no nonsense and straight to the point she is. I think after having hosted multiple seasons of MCI, both Ranveer and Vikas have become a bit dramatic and kind of plays for TV and they haven't been able to leave that behind. Garima on the other hand is there for the competition, not the emotional drama. I loved the way she shut Suvarna the other day and was stern with Priyanka in the precap yesterday. I like how she is strict and sweet whenever needed.

I too just love her❤️

Not overly rude or anything but is strict when she has to be. And is quite honest about what she feels about any food.

@bold- true!! Suvarna was just trying to put the blame on Vineet unnecessarily. And it was weird that she didn't taste her own dish before giving it to judges. And anyway chefs had told them not to talk