Bhakti Arora Manekar

Bhakti Arora Manekar is a Hindi Chef who became the second runner-up of Amul Masterchef Season 4. She was born on 30 October 1984 in Allahabad and brought up in Jhansi. She studied at the Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Arts. Her father and mother are Bankers. She married her love, Suri Manekar, in 2005 and is a Mother of two. As a young girl, she loved cooking. Experimenting with dishes and inventing new recipes was something she loved doing. During her teenage, she moved to Mumbai with her parents. Owing to her husband's Diabetes, she left her job in 2013 to be able to serve her husband balanced meals.

On Masterchef, She won the Favour-E-Azam badge for her dish Maa Ki Shaan. After getting eliminated, she got back with a Wild card entry. She worked – as a Visualizer for Percept H (2006-2007), on adverts for brands like- Hero Honda, Depot Store, Sahara Corporate, and Sahara Homes, as a Senior Account Manager at 180 degrees Corporation (2007-2008), as a Brand Service Manager at lowe Lintas (2009-2010), and as an Assistant Brand Manager, Hair Care (2010-2013). She is a Recipe Developer, menu Curator and consultant, and Cake Artist. In July 2016, she opened- Bell Pepper Café, where she is The Head Chef, owns a cloud kitchen, and has an in-house Bakery. She regularly conducts cooking workshops in her hometown, Hyderabad. Bhakti collaborated with Sattviko, a healthy dining chain, as a corporate Executive chef.

Her stall at The Little Flea, Mumbai, which served Mexican cuisine, became popular and a hot seller. She won Small business local buzz winner in the food category by Intuit. She got featured in all the renowned newspapers of Bhopal during her visits to MasterChef promotions. She was on the front page of the Deccan Chronicle Hyderabad edition as a State representative. She did a campaign with GenY Medium, a leading Digital marketing agency named- Heritage Bytes - With Chef Bhakti Arora. It shed light on the desire of an Indian woman to provide herself and her family with nutritious food. It aimed to determine ways to add nutritional factors to meals and use heritage products for a healthy diet.