
It was a delicious battle at The Bengal Rowing Club last month when 10 teams of home chefs put on their hats and aprons for Masterchef 2018 Season 2 in association with t2.
The competition had three rounds — cooking starters with a healthy twist, rustling up a main course and a final round where participants had to decode a crossword puzzle to get their special ingredient for the dessert. And of course, laying out a show table fetched some brownie points.
“Each of the teams had cooked excellent dishes. It was hard to find faults,” said Hemal Kampani, chairman of the creative committee, The Bengal Rowing Club.
THE JUDGES
Judges Sharad Dewan, regional director, food production, The Park Hotels, and MasterChef India Season 5 winner Kirti Bhoutika sampled dishes before putting in their final scores. “They surpassed my expectations. The dishes were not only tasty but innovative and there was such a wide variety. Even their table setting was done professionally,” said chef Dewan.
AND THE WINNERS ARE...

The Cereal Killers were all smiles after winning the competition. The participants (l-r) Ritu Bajoria, Neha Garodia, Avantika Gupta, Smita Gupta and Manjari Almal had prepared Pan Fried Quinoa Arancini coated with Oats with a side of Beetroot Hummus (picture left) in their cook-off. “It felt really good to win. I love to cook and I cook almost every day at home. Our victory was mainly because of Neha, she too is a great cook,” said Manjari, who is a fan of British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal.
Just look at their table! No wonder the Masala Ma’ams came first for Best Table Decor. “We were also the overall first runner-up. We had cooked Curd Rice and Curd Ball with Ginger Chutney (picture right). We were the only team to make Indian food. It definitely made us stand out. This is the first time I have taken part in a cooking competition and I must say it was a great experience,” said Kailash Tantia (far left), with teammates (l-r) Sneh Loyalka, Kusum Ajitsaria, Nisha Khemka and Amita Gupta.
The Crook with his Cooks won the Best Recipe award. “It was on spot and very interesting. What excited me was that there were so many ingredients to choose from to make your own dish. I would definitely take part again,” said Pooja Jain (third from right) who made Sweet Potato Gnocchi (picture right) with her mates (l-r) Arpit Dhandhania, Priyanka Sethia, Pooja Jain and Rekha Kedia.
Text: Urvashi Bhattacharya. Pictures: Koushik Saha