Corporate Master Chef is an event by World On A Plate which allows individual from corporates to follow their passion of cooking, compete with others for the coveted title of CORPORATE MASTER CHEF.  This event started last year and has been very successful in being able to touch 200k Corporate Employees in the city of Bangalore over a period of 2.5 months.  For the grand finale, 25 Corporate Employees were chosen.  After intense competition, one person became the Corporate Masterchef. 

Judges for Event

A High-Profile event of this magnitude required some of the best in town to judge. 

Chef Abhijit Saha – Celebrity Chef & Founding Director Avant Gard Hospitality Pvt Ltd.  His restaurant Fava and Caperberry have won multiple awards.  Chef specializes in making some of the best Mediterranean and Continental food.  But Chef also focuses on presentation as the eyes devour the food before the mouth relishes it.

Waseem Khan – Photographer beyond excellence who captures the best moments of models & celebrities.

Manoviraj Khosla – Bangalore’s Famous Fashion Designer who has dressed celebrities during multiple Fashion Events.  He has got the taste of excellence.

The Judges are very well established in the industry and this did add more pressure to the finalist.   But most of the time we know that people perform best under pressure.

Event Schedule

This event had multiple sub-events which meant led all the finalist to get a fair chance and kept the audience well entertained.  Event schedule was as follows.

• Round – 1 Corporate Masterchef
• Masterclass by Chef Abhijit Saha
• Bloggers Cook-off event
• Round – 2 Corporate Masterchef

There was sufficient time between each activity and nothing was rushed.

Master of Ceremonies for this event was Santhosh Naik who has years of experience doing multiple event.  He sure did keep the judges, participants & audience very well informed and was fun.

Corporate Masterchef Cook-off

In the present generation, there has been a growing desire for people to stay fit.  Everyone is always thinking eating healthy food and exercising regularly.  The time sponsors for the event promote healthy living in the best possibly manner with their products – India Gate Food promotes Quinoa and Tetley promotes Green Tea.  The products have known to have great healthy benefits and helps reduce weight & stay fit.  Corporate Masterchef Challenge had the finalist make dishes with Quinoa, Green Tea and few ingredients from the black box.  Winner were decided on the basis of – usage of Quinoa & Green Tea in preparation, Presentation, Cleanliness of the table and the ability to explain the dish prepared & answer question.

Round – 1: Group Challenge

In the first round, the finalists were divided into 4 groups and were asked to prepare 2 dishes and the judges questioned the team, evaluated the taste & shared live feedback.  This was a group challenge, which meant that finalists had to interact with each-other in the group and prepare dishes.

The finalists were scampering around, trying to get the ingredients, prepare dishes and plate them.  Every group prepared different set of items and no two groups made the same dish.  Some of the team prepared more than 2 dishes thinking that they would be able to impress the judges.  But the Judges evaluated the only 2/4 dishes for all the team.

Judges had the task cut out and they selected one of the team having 4 contestant who made the best use of ingredients & their dishes tasted good.

Round – 2: Final Round

In the final round, the 4 finalists had to prepare a dish by themselves within a period of 45mts, present it well to judges and explain.  The core ingredient for this round was Quinoa & Green Tea, but they had different set of items in Black Box.

The dishes prepared by finalists were unique – some focussed on using more of Quinoa, some focussed on use more of meat (chicken) & serve with Quinoa, some focussed on trying to add litte portion of Quinoa & hide it.

The judges were very particular on the usage of the ingredients along with the taste.  The winner of the final challenge made the best use of Quinoa and made a dish that impressed the judges.  Winner finished preparing the dished well within the stipulated time. The winner of Corporate Master Chef 2017 is Sanghmitra.

Bloggers Cook-Off Event

This cook-off session was quite similar to the Corporate Master Chef challenge, there were Bloggers instead of Corporate employees.  We were supposed to use at least 5 items from the Blackbox and use any other item from the Kitchen, prepare & present the dish in 40mts.

Among the items prepared, the Quinoa based upma with well cooked vegetables prepared by Naveen Suresh won the crown.  I personally participated in the event and prepared a Quinoa based Salad.  Items used in the preparing the Salad including – Quinoa, Green Tea liquid, Sautéed Veggies, Salt, Chili powder, Tamarind, Garlic Paste, Oregano seasoning and topped it with Pomegranate.  I put the salad on big pieces of Red Cabbage which enhanced the presentation and taste.  This dish received the Runner-up award.

This was a prefect lead-up event before the Round-2 / Final-round in Corporate Masterchef.

Overall Experience

This was one of the best event by Corporate Cook-off event that I have attended recently.  Kudos to the Goldrush Entertainment team for setting this all very well for a wonderful day.  It was lovely seeing the energy and enthusiasm among the finalists.  The judges did a brilliant job during the entire event.  I specially liked the candid feedbacks given by Chef Abhijit Saha and also his master-class.  It is nice to see World On A Plate (WOAP) coming with this wonderful annual event.  I am very much looking forward for the event by the WOAP team.

Pictures taken with Celebrities, Bloggers and Goldrush Entertainment team.