Contestants Syed Sadar Hussain and Jatin Khurana of Masterchef season 5 get candid with Ankita Jain
One specialises in pop-up cafés while the other cannot conceive of a dish without chicken. One never ever minded getting fat so long as he could eat, the other was a lazybone till he got to play around with his passion for food. Two contestants of Masterchef season five have varied stories and upbringing but have got the nation sitting in front of the telly with their very Indian approach.
“I was the first one to start the trend of pop up café named ‘Bread and Better’ in Delhi last year. This experience built confidence in me to participate in the show,” says Syed Sadar Hussain, a Delhiite. He discovered his love for food when he was a three-year-old. “I wanted to be the fattest kid in this world. The only motive of my life was to eat,” he chuckles. Recounting one of his childhood memories, he adds, “Since my early age, I was very keen on cooking. The first thing I cooked was a chapati and as per my mother it was horrible.” Talking about Masterchef, he shares, “The platform gave me an opportunity to get innovative with my skills. I am a typical Indian foodie and I love to experiment with simple homemade cuisines. One of my best so far is mutton rice with a twist. I had presented it in the form of a cupcake where the cup was made of papad and filled with rice and mutton mince. This was served with pineapple chutney.”
Jatin Khurana from ludhiana is so much in love with chicken that he never makes one without it. “All the dishes I prepared to impress the Masterchef judges included experimentation with chicken.”
He believes that his ability to cook with any given ingredient will lead towards his victory in the contest. “I was planning to test myself in season four but since it had a vegetarian format, I decided to try again. By the next season, I was working and earning a sufficient amount of money but then my love for food made me fill up the form. Then there was no looking back,” he explains. He further adds, “I didn’t really prepare for the first round of auditions in Amritsar. I made authentic chicken tacos with refried beans, raw mango salsa and tortilla chips. In Delhi, for the mystery box, I made chicken roulade and a lychee relish. In Mumbai, I made burnt ginger rice and ginger mushroom chicken with orange ginger sauce and at last in Jodhpur, I made chicken dim sums, vegetarian kung pao, jasmine rice and kimchi.” He describes himself as a careless lazy person who was never serious in life until Masterchef. “Being from a business class family, I decided not to join my dad’s business, did my masters and started my telecommunication and data solutions company. But I always loved cooking and here I am today,” he concludes.