Ohkay so firstly I must say WOW! The very first seaon of the most awaited Masterchef Pakistan has begun & I am totally impressed. The very first episode was enough to let us know the scale at which this show is going to be conducted. I liked the simple approach where they didn’t try to dig deeper into the backgrounds of the contestants but in stead sticked to their cooking skills which they came to show in this competition. First episode down & can’t wait to see what’s more to come already. :)
The judges of the show are Chef Mehboob, Chef Khurram & Chef Zakir. I must say the judges kept their grace & were to the point. They were lenient & friendly with the contestants but were strict when it came to the judgement, just exactly how the judges should be like. At the beginning of the episode they announced that the title winner will be awarded with PKR 50 Lacs & a chance to publish their own cook book, which I must say is a huge pay off in any reality show ever seen.
Now coming onto the auditions, I liked the fact that they didn’t go all over Pakistan to show where & how they picked which contestant. The show has commenced at a point where top 100 have been selected & now the battle for the top 50 spots has begun. The judges didn’t give much of a critera of their judgement but by looking at the auditions they certainly selected those who came up with their own mind in the cooking. The judges are definitely looking for some creativity & mostly those contestants who attempted fusion cooking got through to the next round.
I must say to be honest I never expected to see such advanced & diverse cooking in Masterchef Pakistan, not underestimating our talent by any means but I didn’t know people all across Pakistan would marvel at different techniques of cooking that well. All those contestants who came forward for the auditions presented something unique & fascinating which proves that this competition is going to be a lot more interesting & there’s no chance left to miss this show.
A few contestants who got selected in tonight’s episode were:
Mudassir Ilyas the GM of Medical store from Karachi & he presented ‘Fish w/ Garlic Rice & Vegetable Sauce’
Madiha Khalid a housewife from Islamabad & she came up with ‘Grilled Salmon w/ Smoked Salad & Orange Sauce’
Kaneez Zehra a housewife from Karachi who made ‘Hindustani Platter’
Adnan Qureshi a student from Islamabad who did a fusion of ‘Rice Macaroni & Steaks’
Bushra Fatima who came up with ‘Chicken Biryani & Cake Rusk Sweet Dish’
Ainne a yoga instructor who made ‘Steam Roast & Chicken Kastoori’
Madiha a student from Islamabad & she came up with ‘Chicken Mushroom w/ Bashindo Sauce’
Saad Mustafa a CEO who presented ‘Mutton Chops w/ Brown Gravy, Mesh & Fig Chutney’
Ammarah Numan a housewife from Karachi & she made ‘Mexican Enchiladas w/ Salsa Sauce’
Ammar Afridi a student & a fan of Gordon Ramsay who made ‘Indo Chinese Chicken Chilli Dry’
Ambreen Tariq a Government employee & she made ‘Chatni Fish w/ Spicy Veggies’
Some others who got the aprons were Sobia, Sidra Tariq, Raheel Fatima & Ali Baloch.
So this was the list of the contestants who got the white aprons in these auditions & they qualified for the next round. One thing that’s worth mentioning is that these contestants went through live cooking challenge where they got a time limit of 1 hour in which they had to present the food to the judges & to cook such amazing dishes in an ultimatum with such a pressure on your head is amazing.
I am glad that they kept the spirit of the show light-hearted & the contestants kept their calm as well. They did show their excitement which was obviously justified but none of them actually went on a sympathy spree in front of the judges. This was the only thing that I was dreading in Masterchef but I must say I am glad our weekends are now going to be filled with something worthy & we’d have something to look forward to & discuss every week.
One thing that did bug me a little was the choppy editing because some contestants weren’t introduced properly & some didn’t tell which city they belonged to. I think it would’ve been better that along with the dish ticker, they had shown the ticker having the details of the contestants so as to remember them easily but never-mind.
Of all the contestants in this episode I found Madiha Khalid, Ammarah Numan, Madiha, Ammar Afridi & Ambreen Tariq really interesting & I am definitely rooting for them all. Really happy with the curtain raiser of Masterchef Pakistan & can’t wait to see the rest of the season, bring it on!!! :)
Share your views about the very first episode.
Keep supporting,
Cheers,
Zahra Mirza.