Junior Masterchef Swaad ke Ustaad is Indian version of popular American Programme “Junior Masterchef”. The programme has made a serious attempt to prove culinary skills of Indian children. The participants’ age was restricted from 9-12 years and preliminary auditions were held in major cities of India. After preliminary rounds, 10 participants were selected for First Junior Masterchef Swaad ke Ustaad contest and the first episode of this cookery reality show was aired on Star Plus channel on 17th August 2013 at 9.00 p.m. All the ten participants of the contest made their best efforts and toiled hard to prove their culinary skills, to present their dishes as a work of art and show their knowledge like a food scientist. At the outset, judges and chefs
Vikas Khanna
,
Kunal Kapur
and
Surjan Singh Jolly
were a bit apprehensive whether the children would be able to cook, their apprehensions were proved baseless as the episodes progressed and with each episode, it was established beyond any shred of doubt that Indian children can not only sing, dance or act but can also cook better than anyone. In India, a child cooking fancy gourmet food or exotic dessert was never ever considered before this contest, but the show proved that they are in no way behind the original Masterchefs.
The first season of Junior Masterchef Swaad ke Ustaad ended on 18 the October 2013 with Sarthak Bharadwaj as winner, and
Sakshi Tripathi
and Emanuel Chouhan as first and second runners up respectively. The second season has not yet begun.