'Desh Ab Frontfoot Pe Chal Raha Hai is not just a slogan - I see it every day in MasterChef India:’ Vikas Khanna

'Desh Ab Frontfoot Pe Chal Raha Hai is not just a slogan -  I see it every day in MasterChef India:’  Vikas Khanna

Chandigarh 7 January ( Ranjeet Singh Dhaliwal ) : MasterChef India often turns everyday stories into national pride. What kind of dish, for you, truly represents India stepping confidently onto the global stage? For me, the dish that represents India stepping confidently onto the global stage is not a complicated tasting menu or something plated with tweezers. It is usually the dish that comes from the smallest kitchen, from a pressure cooker that has seen years of use, from hands that have fed generations. It is dal with ghee, fresh roti, curd rice, poha, idli-chutney, khichdi, sarson ka saag and makki ki roti, fish curry and rice — dishes that were once called “simple” but today are spoken about with respect in the greatest dining rooms of the world.

For a long time, we were told to tone down our spices, to soften our flavors, to make our food “less Indian” so that it could travel. Today, India is traveling without compromise. Our dishes are not asking to be accepted — they are inviting the world in. India steps onto the global stage the day a chef in Paris or New York proudly serves dal or dosa without translation or apology — simply saying, “This is Indian food.” Our confidence lies in acknowledging that our food is not defined by complexity of presentation but by:

​•​depth of memory

​•​honesty of ingredients

​•​heritage of technique ​•​and warmth of serving

When a dish cooked in a home kitchen by a mother or grandmother becomes the emotional center of a fine-dining table anywhere in the world, that is India’s front-foot moment. It is when we realize that our simplest dish can carry history, migration, seasons, prayers, festivals, and love all in one bite — that is when India truly arrives.

2. As a mentor, what excites you more — perfect technique or a contestant discovering their voice for the first time?

Perfect technique is beautiful — I respect discipline deeply. Knife skills, temperature control, balance, timing — these are the grammar of the kitchen. When someone executes a technique flawlessly, it shows dedication and training, and it always earns admiration. But when a contestant discovers their voice for the first time, that is a spiritual moment. There is a point in the competition when a contestant stops asking, “Will the judges like this?” and starts saying, “This is my story. This is my food.” That moment towers above technique.

It happens when:

​•​someone cooks a recipe they learned from their grandmother on a chulha

​•​someone brings ingredients from their village and refuses to hide them

​•​someone cooks a dish that holds grief or childhood or migration

​•​someone cooks for a person they miss or for a dream they once buried

You can see the shift in their eyes. They don’t cook to impress anymore. They cook to express. Technique can create a good chef.

Voice creates an artist. So yes, technique excites me intellectually — but discovering one’s voice moves my heart. Because the world has many technically excellent chefs. What it needs are chefs who know who they are and why they cook.

3. You have been judging MasterChef India for quite a long time — any memory or contestant’s journey that made you nostalgic?

Every season has hundreds of dishes, tears, celebrations, eliminations — but the moments that stay with me are rarely loud ones. They are the small emotional earthquakes. I remember contestants who came from tiny towns, who had never flown on a plane, who held the knife like it was sacred. They would say things like: “I am not here for fame. I am here so my children don’t feel small in front of the world.”

There have been mothers who paused between cooking because their hands remembered hunger. Young contestants who lost parents and cooked recipes just to feel close to them again. Fathers who never said “I love you” in words but cooked to express it. These journeys make me deeply nostalgic. They take me straight back to Amritsar, to my childhood kitchen — the smell of tandoor smoke, the sound of roti puffing, flour on the floor, the little struggles, the big dreams. I remember my mother’s strength, the way food kept us together during the hardest times. So yes, some contestants are unforgettable — not because of the dishes they cooked, but because of the life they carried into the kitchen. MasterChef, in those moments, stops being a cooking show and becomes something far more intimate — a place where food becomes language, dignity, identity, healing, and belonging.

4. The theme ‘Desh Ab Front Foot Par Chal Raha Hai’ suggests progress with purpose. How does that reflect in the journeys you see this season? “Desh ab front foot par chal raha hai” is not just a slogan — I see it every day in the MasterChef kitchen. Front foot, for this generation of cooks, means courage with responsibility. They are not trying to imitate someone else’s food. They are presenting India as India truly is — layered, diverse, rooted, confident.

This season, contestants are:

​•​proudly using regional ingredients once called “poor man’s food.”

​•​bringing recipes from tribal communities, mountain villages, coastal towns

​•​respecting farmers and talking about soil and seasonality

​•​reviving forgotten pickles, ghar ka masala, sun-dried techniques

​•​celebrating millets, coarse grains, Ayurveda principles, fermentation, smoke, fire, earthen pots

Earlier, people asked, “Will our cuisine be accepted globally?” Today, the tone has changed to, “This is our cuisine, and we are proud of it.”

Front foot also means purpose:

​•​less waste in the kitchen

​•​awareness of climate and sustainability

​•​inclusivity of voices, regions, languages

​•​celebrating street vendors and home cooks as culinary heroes

I see contestants who carry both a laptop and a lota, Instagram and an iron kadhai — modern yet deeply connected to their roots. India today is not afraid of being traditional, and not afraid of being innovative either. That balance is our new strength. This is India on the front foot — grounded in history, confident in identity, and compassionate in success.