This week, the Top 8 home cooks of Sony Entertainment Television and SonyLIV’s ‘MasterChef India’ will embark on a fantastic journey to the luxurious city of Abu Dhabi. Away from the comfort of the ‘MasterChef India Kitchen’, the home cooks visit the capital city of UAE to broaden their horizons and learn new culinary cultures and customs. The home cooks will be evaluated on their culinary knowledge by Chefs Ranveer Brar, Vikas Khanna, and Garima Arora, who will also be testing them on their flexibility and capacity to learn.
On Monday, the contestants will come together in pairs for the unique ‘Pairs Challenge’, true to literally being in ‘Pair-adise’ in Abu Dhabi. Their first stop would be the adventurous ‘Yas Waterworld’ wherein the task of the day would be to prepare Arabic street food and bring it to the judges. Assam’s Nayanjyoti Saikia and Haryana’s Gurkirat Singh would be the duo who would win the Chefs’ hearts with their amazing ‘Qatayef with Cinnamon Tea’. The Qatayef is a dessert dish, and the Chefs would be amazed at how well it combines with cinnamon tea because typically, desserts do not go well with sweet beverages.
Chef Ranveer Brar would be impressed by Gurkirat’s presence of mind and how quickly he adapted himself to middle eastern cuisine. He said, “I was surprised by the idea of Gurkirat’s dish which was having two sweeteners together on the plate- a dessert and tea. It was a good decision to present us with Gurkirat’s dish than Nayanjyoti’s because his chicken was burnt. The Qatayef and the cinnamon tea blended harmoniously. The tea was light, and the spice of the cinnamon balanced out the sweetness of the Qatayef.”
Talking about his dish Gurkirat said, “I have never tried an Arabic dish, but I succeeded in making this dish because it seemed close to home but unique to this culture as well. It’s also my first time in Abu Dhabi and I am so very grateful to the makers of MasterChef India for giving us this opportunity.”
While all the home cooks will be preparing to win over the judges, there will be two home cooks who would create “trouble in Pair-adise”. Who would they be?