Kunal Kapur returns to MasterChef India as judge, calling it a major learning journey that deepened his understanding of Indian cuisine. He praises home cooks’ creativity and shares his strong off screen bond and playful chemistry with co judges Vikas Khanna and Ranveer Brar
Vikas Khanna, Kunal Kapur and Ranveer Brar
Chef Kunal Kapur, known for giving Indian cuisine a refined modern touch, has returned to MasterChef India as a judge after a long gap. In an exclusive chat, the celebrated chef reflected on his journey with the show, his bond with fellow judges Vikas Khanna and Ranveer Brar, and what continues to excite him about the culinary platform.
Calling it an enriching experience, Kunal said, “Oh, well, I think it’s been a very interesting journey for me. What has really come out and established itself is the amount of exposure that I’ve got through this show. I’ve got a great deal of opportunity to learn my own food, my own cuisine.”
Kunal Kapur on returning as judge in MasterChef India
He explained how his training began with classical techniques. “When you’re trained as a professional chef, you start with French cooking, the basics. And once you are part of MasterChef India, and once you start traveling India across India, you realize that there is so much of food that is still undiscovered, untouched. The realisation dawns on you that a lifetime is too less a time to even understand or crack the surface of Indian food. And the journey for me is a major learning curve, personally. Also with television as a medium, connect to masses to make them understand my food philosophy.”
Speaking about contestants, he added, “I think what home cooks bring in is the honesty, the love and the passion for food. Normally in a hotel, you are sometimes fixated on to a certain menu. You don’t easily divert or flow into another direction. It takes time to move because a restaurant or an establishment is a big ship. You can’t just make certain turns. But when you are an individual, when you’re a home cook, you’re not bound by certain ideations or rules and regulations. You are quick, nimble on your feet. You take the risk. You twist and turn the things. And that’s where your creativity comes into full bloom. And you’re not afraid to hold back anything. I think that’s very important.”
On his bond with co-judges
On his equation with his co judges, Kunal shared, “I think all three of us because we’ve known each other for over a decade and I’ve known Ranveer for about 26 years. Now we’ve worked in three different hotels together and both of them are like brothers. It’s the boys gang. But on cam, obviously, you see our chemistry, our individual characters coming out very clearly and distinctly. Off cam, obviously, there’s a whole lot of fun and musty and banter. We eat our food together. We are always together. There’s a whole lot of laughter. We make those funny reels which thankfully go viral on its own. It’s brainless. But it also gives us a outlet to kind of deflate ourselves from all the rush and the tension that sometimes happens on the set during the challenges.”
Laughing about their personalities, he added, “So I think I’m the pooky clearly. Vikas is the mom pop and the one ready for banter is Ranveer. So I think these three personalities come across very, very clear and clean. And, you know, that’s part of who we are. So we don’t put on an act or anything. It’s natural. Obviously, we don different hats. We are not the same all the time. But this is what as a core we are. So it all comes across naturally. Vikas for sure. He needs constant pampering. He needs constant attention. All in a good way.”
When asked what he would order from their menus, Kunal said, “What I would pick is from Vikas’s menu is the apple minas kai curry, which is a great combination of pineapple and a spicy curry. Very, very typical South Indian dish, which is made with a fruit as the hero. And from Ranveer’s menu, the Assamese black chicken, which is made from the black til. It’s a great tasting dish from our Northeast.”
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