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Kitchen Champion 4
Savour this cookery show
Monday - Friday, 1 pm, Colors
Kitchen Champion is into its fourth season. The kitchen ka Kurukshetra, as host Ronit Roy calls it, has heroines from the channel's shows divided into two groups with every episode having two women fighting the belan battle. Nothing new about that, except the fun game rounds, which gives one contestant a chance to score over the other and win some precious minutes of recipe preparation time. It also means that she can seek the master-chef-cum-judge Gautam Maharshi's help once while cooking the recipe.
In between all this, Roy flirts with the women who he calls his gopiyan. Then there is Smita Singh aka Punpunwali (whose girth will soon put Dolly Bindra to shame) who makes eyes at the host and is even the comic flavour of the show. To give the viewers some more value for their money, there are the chef's handy kitchen tips as also his demonstration of the dish in "five star andaz" etc. Result: the show packs in as many ingredients as it can, including Roy even giving a message at the end of every episode and what you get is too many things for the price of one. For those then who are only interested in the recipes (and the chef has some really good ones like kachche kele ka chettinad or French fries with honey chilli sauce or even paneer and mushrooms cooked in Chinese style), it could be a chore to sit through the entire episode. What could have been a compact half hour capsule is stretched to a never ending 60 minutes.
Having said that, what we like are the recipes for sure (I tried the French fries with the sauce and it turned out good) and the easy banter between 'Punpun-wali' and Roy, but up to a point. What we didn't get is the marking system of the chef. He scores the two contestants on various parameters including taste, presentation, innovation etc but he doesn't always tell us where they went wrong in terms of taste or the kind of innovation they brought to the recipe. Also, the makers rely a little too much on ready foods (they have to please the sponsors, we guess, so you have readymade sauces and condiments etc) and that takes away from the joy of watching a recipe without any shortcuts! Last but not the least Roy in an attempt to enjoy himself goes completely OTT.
Kitchen Champion still has lots on its plate for every homemaker (yes, for men too) who is always at her wits' end to whip up a grand, lip-smacking meal.
Verdict: ***
If you are one for cookery-based shows, by all means, savour this.
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