Week 20 - 24 November

Let’s discuss this weeks episodes here

Today the judges from masterchef Tamil came as guests, and they seemed to have more feedback than our judges. I speak no Tamil or I would’ve loved to watch it.

Every time they make the challenge sound difficult but seriously, if this is difficult then I don’t know what easy is. They literally had one group of condiments, one of protein and one of earthy vegetables!

Something I’ve noticed this season is when a dish with a certain ingredient is praised, everyone wants to use that same ingredient in future dishes.

Nambi - she chose lobster, pipli and purple yam. She made a lobster bisque with yam stuffed baati. It sounded very interesting and was a wonderful thought. She merged cuisines from different countries and made a winner.

Kriti - when she chose her ingredients I was sure she’d make a dessert, but she made a chaat. She made a paan leaf chaat - so besan and rice flour coated paan leaves with a yam filling and grape and tamarind chutney, served with yoghurt foam and besan sev. Her dish was praised.

Rukhsaar - her dish didn’t sound appealing. She made a Kashmiri inspired dessert. So a fried ball which she wanted to stuff with grape jelly, served with paan ice cream. I don’t quite remember what she chose from the earth basket. This was her worst dish so far.

Nidhi - She made a tortellini - the stuffing was oyster mushrooms, pipli. Again I don’t remember what was the third ingredient she chose. Her pasta was over cooked. I thought her dish would be better.

Ashiq - he made a ghee roast lobster, with Indian horseradish sauce and parsnip mash. The dish looked lovely, and I’m happy that he chose different ingredients. Horseradish popularly called wasabi is a tricky ingredient. Chef Ranveer said that if his wasabi wasn’t so mellow he’d get the chefs knife again! He’s doing well, but I’m bored of the ghee roasts.

Harry - he made a Filipino dessert with yam, but it didn’t look great and was just average from the judges comments.

Kenny - he worked hard on his presentation, it was nice but cluttered. Even he realized that it would look better on a bigger plate. He went quite wrong with his seasoning, and other than the lobster his other ingredients didn’t have much importance on his plate.

Suraj - he made a mango ginger and jalapeño ice cream with grape cobbler. He received mixed reviews.

The way the ingredients were chosen were boring to me. Can they let the judges determine the ingredients for the contestants? Or let the contestant who was successful determine the fate of the ingredients. It's soo boring.

Nambi chose pipli, lobster, and purple yam. Using cheese in her dish is quite interesting. When she mention a North-South fusion & particularly the daal baati variation with a bisque, it seems interesting. Yam filled baati was enticing.

Kriti- paan, black grape, purple yam. She went the savory route lol with the chaat, yam mash and black grape chutney lol. 😂 I thought another dessert thus was about to be turned off lol. 😂 But overall, I thought more effort is required thus wasn't blown out by her dish.

Nidhi- pipli, oyster mushroom, and mango ginger. Tortellini dish is kinda boring to see lol. When the stuffing had pipli in it, I kinda was let down there lol. She herself looks lost. Portion is inadequate.

Suraj- jalapeno, black grapes, and mango ginger. Mango ginger & jalapeno ice cream sounds bit of a turn off for me tbh, pairing it with black grape cobbler.

Harry- paan, black grapes and purple yam. I liked that the Tamil judges criticized his method of doing short-cuts. Not his best presentation.

M. Aashiq- Indian horseradish, lobster, and parsnip. While I'm interested in the usage of the horseradish, I'm not flabbergasted at his choice of ingredients tbh this time. Dish wasn't his best. Esp poaching the lobster in ghee.

Kennie- jalapeno, lobster, and parsnip. Presentation isn't that bad but could've been better. Taste seemed off.

Rukhsar- paan, black grapes, and mango ginger. I'm kinda fed up of the Kashmiri route for a while. I wish she explores beyond her roots. She's making a basrakh ice cream which seemed childishly presented.

Kriti's dish was not that good may be, but I am happy that at least she tried something other than the dessert, even Nidhi tried something other than the Himachali food, Nambi got the best comments, what should I say for Kenny I don't know, I think that he is so young and so filled with energy that he starts thinking too much and then gets confused and then ends up mixing everything that looks evident on his plate, but its commendable that at least he knows so much in such a young age. MD and Suraj are good, its just that everyone has good and bad days.

Rukhsaar seems to be consistently making Kashmiri dishes, and while I don't have an issue with Kashmiri food, it would be interesting to see her explore different cuisines and challenge herself and also our (audience like me) perceptions about her. Even if she loves Kashmiri food, she could add a hint of Kashmiri flavor to other cuisines. It gets a bit monotonous to see her repeatedly sticking to Kashmiri flavors. I wish she would try something new and showcase her versatility. The latest dish, a Kashmiri-inspired dessert with a fried ball filled with grape jelly and paan ice cream, didn't look appealing. I'm curious about what she used from the earth basket – I forgot. Making a basrakh ice cream is a step, but I'm not sure how different it is from her usual Kashmiri fare.

I wasn't blown away from yesterday's episode. Though I respect M. Aashiq for not using the power card, I wasn't blown away by his dish, tbh because he is still sticking to his Mangalorean roots here and there. Though it seemed like the taste of his dish was pretty solid.

Rukhsar needs to go, IMO. She's just cooking Kashmiri dishes everyday which is so boring to see. Can she do some Kashmiri food fusion?

So does Nidhi because her dish was too basic - a thai curry is too amateurish tbh.

Only dish I thought was decent was Suraj's dessert and how his dish has essence of coconut literally everywhere.

I quite liked yesterdays episode. I knew yesterdays episode would be cakewalk for Harry and Aashiq. As South Indians they are used to cooking with coconut and its derivatives. Like ChemcartMJ I wish Aashiq moves away from South Indian cuisine only. Though we’ve seen him cook other stuff, this is his comfort zone.

I was impressed with Kritis thoughts and happy she chose to make a savoury item and not a dessert. It sounded really interesting, pity it didn’t translate into a good dish.

If there’s one person who hasn’t experimented much it’s Rukhsaar, she just won’t let go of Kashmiri cuisine. She is a great cook and I’m sure she’d do well cooking other cuisines as well. Though the judges liked her dish, I was disappointed.

Nidhi cooks known things - you’ll never see something invented by her. She made a Thai curry and rice cakes - very common south East Asian dishes.

Suraj made a lovely looking and tasting dish, but he’s only sticking to desserts, I really expect more from him.
Nambi made beautiful looking dumplings with a coconut sauce. She does a great fusion of north east and south.

Originally posted by: Chemcart_MJ

Only dish I thought was decent was Suraj's dessert and how his dish has essence of coconut literally everywhere.

tbh I don't know who should go or not, I mean I don't know why but I am not liking this season, although there were so many flaws in the last season but still people felt like at least watching, I even watched season 6 but I don't know why I am not able to watch this season with interest.

accha, I don't know whether I am right or not, but they look very much professional, I mean although we criticized last season's homecooks but some of them looked as if they were really learning, I mean there dishes were very basic, plus it felt as they were being trained under the chefs.

If you have noticed then chef Vikas had to teach them how to make poach, chef Garima had to teach them how to make a meringue which I think most of the homecooks knew in all the seasons, that too both the chefs were teaching them step by step like teachers teach kids, so I thought that they were learning everything in the process.

What amazed me the most is that even Priyanka had to be told how to make a meringue using hands. She was getting surprised and amazed as if she was seeing all this for the first time.

Any update on today's episode? I did not watch

Honestly Monday's epi I kept hoping that the judges would throw a curveball and be like x person's chosen ingredients will go to y or have them mix up midway. But nothing like that.

Even yesterday, they called it zero waste challenge but literally everyone wasted stuff. It would have been more interesting if everyone got one coconut and had to make different dishes using that and limited ingredients from the pantry (like 5 each or something). And they had to bring their dish + their waste together to get judged. Then that would have been more interesting.

Team challenge. It's quite obvious they are setting up red team for the win again. It has Suraj, Nambi, and Rukshar and judges don't like Harry, so obviously blue team will go to elimination unless this time they've decided one of the Ks is going.

Originally posted by: Raina101

I quite liked yesterdays episode. I knew yesterdays episode would be cakewalk for Harry and Aashiq. As South Indians they are used to cooking with coconut and its derivatives. Like ChemcartMJ I wish Aashiq moves away from South Indian cuisine only. Though we’ve seen him cook other stuff, this is his comfort zone.

I was impressed with Kritis thoughts and happy she chose to make a savoury item and not a dessert. It sounded really interesting, pity it didn’t translate into a good dish.

If there’s one person who hasn’t experimented much it’s Rukhsaar, she just won’t let go of Kashmiri cuisine. She is a great cook and I’m sure she’d do well cooking other cuisines as well. Though the judges liked her dish, I was disappointed.

Nidhi cooks known things - you’ll never see something invented by her. She made a Thai curry and rice cakes - very common south East Asian dishes.

Suraj made a lovely looking and tasting dish, but he’s only sticking to desserts, I really expect more from him.
Nambi made beautiful looking dumplings with a coconut sauce. She does a great fusion of north east and south.

@ Bold: But that's just it. This season none of the contestants are really going outside their comfort zone. Some of them are still innovating within their cuisine like Rukshar and Aashiq, but then others still are just cooking the same stuff that everyone can cook and yet they get praised to seventh heaven, like Nidhi. I mean her pasta - what was different in that? I make mushroom ravioli at home. I could probably even innovate and present it better than her (add food colouring or some veggie that brings out a colour to the pasta and then present it differently - done).

Kriti is innovating at a time when innovation isn't needed and not listening to instructions. The chefs clearly said several times that coconut needs to be highlight yet she still kept going and made raspberry equally highlighted. I feel like she thinks she knows as much as the chefs sometimes.

Suraj and Nambi are the only 2 who are trying to do some stuff outside their comfort zone. They are trying to do fusion cooking at least and most of the times they succeed.

Harry tries but he usually falls flat somewhere - whether it be taste, innovation, or presentation. Kenny's inexperience shows when he tries to add so many elements to his dishes.