MasterChef India Season 7 Episode 9 is titled ‘The Iconic Mystery Box Challenge’ and the synopsis reads as – The cooks get thrown a curveball as the mystery box presents them with ingredients that they have never worked with before. Can the home cooks show their versatility and prove why they deserve a spot on the show?
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 9 Review and Recap Contains Spoilers-
The latest episode brings a surprise for the remaining 8 contestants with a mystery box challenge. For this immunity round, they have 60 minutes and have to make a dish from the mystery ingredients inside. There are 10 ingredients in total and they have to use at least 5 of them in their dishes. Overall, they have to create a European dish with it but with an Indian technique.
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The ingredients are revealed to be: Salmon, duck breast, red cabbage, grapes, cheese, thyme, Oats, butternut squash, wine and some other nuts. For this European challenge, they have also invited chef Guntas Sethi who will be joining the judges in this culinary challenge. After the evaluations, two contestants will be given immunity and will join others in the gallery.
After some struggles with the random ingredients, the contestants were able to make their dishes on time and even got some beneficial tips from the judges. Kamaldeep was called upon first and she presented a pan-seared fish with butternut squash puree and also used grapes in her dish. The judges liked her puree a lot, although the fish was a bit overcooked.
After that Urmila Baa was called upon to present her Lasagna, which she had made for the first time. The judges complimented her efforts but commented that it was not on par with her previous dishes. Although, the squash flavouring was excellent. Followed Santa next, as she presented her crispy fish skin with Fish fumet, which was overcooked but the potato salad was liked by the judges.
Yashu made a Hazelnut roasted duck, and Sachin made Confit duck breast, which is usually a duck leg meat cooked in its own fat for hours but his dish came nowhere near and disappointed the judges. Vineet presented creme brulee which wasn’t shown much and we didn’t get to see all the comments on his dish.
Priyanka presented a thyme and cheese-crusted fish with wine reduction, which instantly got a nod from chef Garima for the presentation but her fish was overcooked. It also didn’t have enough for all the judges to taste all the ingredients. Lastly, Gurkirat presented his dish which was a squash tart with oats for texture.
He had some issues while making the food and was not able to decide whether to present the whole tart or just a slice, but the final product was liked by everyone and he even got a spoon drop from Chef Vikas, who complimented him for finding the balance in his food, which was missing in previous challenges.
Final Thoughts: MasterChef India Season 7 Episode 9
The round was completed with two winners at the end: Gurkirat and Kamaldeep, as their dishes stood out to be the best. The main issue in almost all the dished today was that the meat was overcooked and that setback made many dishes rank low. Now the 6 remaining contestants will be going through a pressure test, where one contestant will be eliminated.
The episode overall was good and showed each contestant but we can still see the favouritism by the creators as they breeze through some contestants very quickly and give lots of screen time to select one.
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