MasterChef India Season 7 Episode 18 is titled ‘Preparing Meals Under High Pressure’ and the synopsis reads, “The home cooks continue to prepare their meals to impress the chefs in ‘Thalassa’ under a time crunch. Will they deliver the taste the chefs are looking for?”
The judges of the show include Vikas Khanna and Ranveer Brar, who are joined by Garima Arora, the first-ever female chef to be a judge on the show. The cooking competition show is a nationwide quest to find the best ‘home cook’ and draws out some of the most brilliant chefs from across India. The judges sample recipes from various cuisines that the contestants prepare in their search for India’s ‘MasterChef’. The show is produced by Endemol Shine India and it is directed by Neeraj Shetty.
-MasterChef India Season 7 Episode 18 Review and Recap Contains Spoilers-
Episode 18 continues the Mediterranean 3-course meal challenge from the last episode. With 90 minutes in total, at the 60th minute, they had to bring their first course, which was a mezze platter. Team blue clearly won the first round, with compliments from everyone. After that at the 75th minute, they will have to bring the main course and lastly at the end of the challenge, they will have to bring the desserts.
Working on the second course, the blue team consisting of Priyanka as captain, Kamaldeep, Nayanjyoti, Vineet, Sachin and Suvarna faced some challenges as Suvarna accidentally did a short circuit in the kitchen and Nayanjyoti didn’t close the pressure cooker properly, leading to the rice being burnt.
Chef Edgardo Cruzet has to delegate the team with safety hazards and the blue team had to come up with a quick replacement for the rice that they were going to put on the plate. The yellow team which consisted of Priya as the captain, along with Gurkirat, Avinash, Santa, Deepa and Aruna, also had some hiccups with their first batch of fish getting stuck to the grill.
Finally, under much pressure, the teams served their main course to the judges. Blue team made a pan-seared fish with corn and pineapple salad and instead of rice, they had put grilled corn on the plate. The judges questioned Priyanka on how they could burn a basic staple like rice and such mistakes should never happen on their level.
While team yellow served a grilled fish and cannellini bean mash which was liked by everyone. Their fish was also well-seasoned as compared to the blue team who used pan-cooked fish instead of the grill. Even the flavours were spot on for the yellow team and they received a spoon drop from Chef Vikas.
For the last course – dessert, both the teams were low on sugar and had to work with other sweet replacements instead. They were taking more time to prepare the desserts thus Chef Garima had to visit the kitchen and ask them to hurry. The yellow team served them an orange and olive oil cake with cream cheese on top.
The blue team served a filo and custard dessert but instead, they made filo-like crisps with strawberry and lime coulis. The judges commented that it looked a bit dry but had good textures. However, the yellow team’s cake was much refreshing in taste and was liked by all the judges including Thalassa’s owner Mariketty Grana, who wanted to put it on her menu.
Final Thoughts: MasterChef India Season 7 Episode 18
If it isn’t evident already, then the yellow team won the challenge. In the mezze platter round the blue team took the win but in the next two rounds, the yellow team came through with the best taste and presentation. It means they are safe from this week’s elimination, whereas the members of the blue team will be competing tomorrow to get safe.
Despite it being the second time, Priyanka was not able to secure a win with her team, the losing contestants also seem to be losing their competitive spirit with every loss. Thankfully, there was not much product placement voiceover in between, but the segment plugin where they make a dish from the mayo honestly, doesn’t look appetising one bit. All the dishes that they have shown how to make so far, would never urge me to make them.
MasterChef India Season 7 is currently streaming on SonyLIV and a new episode is released from Monday to Friday at 9 PM.
Also Read: Check Out All of Our MasterChef India Season 7 Reviews