Creating out-of-the-(mystery) box dishes, MasterChef India Season 5 contestants are going ‘glocal’. The 16 contestants, who will battle it out for several weeks, delivered hit dishes on their very first challenge. In the new season, the concept of the show has moved from being just about taste to being glocal — local but with global influences.
A mystery box with chicken, Kadali bananas (tiny sweet bananas found in south India), beetroot, oranges, anise star, mustard oil, almonds, coriander, green chillies and spinach was provided for the first challenge — a quintessential Indian basket. Only four of these needed to be used with two kitchen tools from a separate box, which included noodle makers, idli-appam chatti (idli and hopper-making pan), woks and more. All the five dishes that the judges chose to try out in the first challenge were prepared with Indian ingredients but were all recreations of international dishes. The trend continued with the second challenge, but this time butter beans — not a common food in India — were chosen as the star ingredient.
With ages ranging from 19 to 69, the mix of home cooks displayed skills and knowledge of culinary products beyond the usual pressure cooker and kadhai (wok). While 44-year-old Anagha, a product manager from San Francisco, created a palate-pleasing chilli-coriander ice cream and beetroot halwa, and 23-year-old Ajay, a tourism student from Jammu & Kashmir, came up with chilli-flavoured tart, orange curd and star anise-flavoured beetroot ice cream, it was 21-year-old Manchester-based lawyer Dinesh who stole the hearts of the judges with his Dutch pancake with caramelised bananas. Other contestants were just as innovative with tea-flavoured chicken, rose-baked yoghurt and kiwi sondesh.
With its first challenge itself MasterChef India Season 5 has set the stage for innovation not just in taste, but in creativity and presentation.
The show airs on Saturday and Sunday at 8pm on Star Plus.
