Top Cooku Dupe Cooku

The pairings were not conducive to humor, but the show was fun. Binny madam is rocking. Kudos to Media masons and chef Bhat on creating a role for her knowing her strengths and where she will fit into the show. Vadivelu's presence was enjoyable.

 

So the show has steady gone better and better

I am super impressed with Dheena. He is perhaps another Bala but hasn't hit the strides like Bala yet given that the show is still new.

So Deena goes to chef Bhat and says, you are a chef, let's say you are making a.dish with shrimp and it becomes watery. Without realizing what Dheena is up to Bhat says he will add corn flour or besan. The. He realizes and says I am pranking you. Finally the top cook ends up using corn flour and saves the dish.

Bhat recaps everything during tasting saying that Dheena set him up and asked the question. It's later revealed that Dheena got confused with bhat's reply and goes to the other chef and gets the answer based on bhat's answers.

Super presence of mind.

The show is apt at one hour and I like all the small differences they have done. Missing Sonia, who was really getting healed. I wished she could have stayed longer. Aishwarya is rocking though.

 

The show has been stepping up week after week.

It was an absolute laugh riot last week.

Individuals rising up and shining and credit should go to the show for allowing everyone to shine.

 

Awesome episode today as well. Vera level.

2 new wild card entries!!

 

There is enough negativity going on in CWC and it is hogging the media limelight. However the positivity of TCDC is not. I have been wanting to write about this for a while.
Here is the review of the season so far.

Anchor: Rakesh
His name has more letters in common with Rakshan and he kind of looks like Rakshan and he is Rakshan in spirit. He is sportive, friendly and helpful. Rakshan has a better funny bone, and Rakesh is working on it. Though it is hard to compete with Rakshan, Rakesh has been more than adequate. His occasional flirting with Chaitra and Manish is harmless, Bhatt keeps him in check. Good Addition for the show.

Judges:
Bhatt rocks, nothing new here. He carried the show on his able shoulders and continues to be the strong point of it. He is a true leader with great judging of not just the dishes but people too. He brought sensible people around him and keeps anything unruly of unacceptable things away from the show.

Chef RamMohan: A welcome addition to the show. A child hood friend of chef and I love the guy. His interactions with Top Cooku Sujatha are always hilarious. His culinary knowledge and skills surpasses Bhatt which Bhatt has admitted. We know Bhatt does not eat non-veg and tries to judge based on how well the meat i cooked and how the flavors are based on smell. Here Chef RamMohan steps in and gives a spot on assessment of the dish. Most of the non-veg dishes Bhatt is listening to Ched RamMohan's comments and resetting his own observations and learns.
Once or twice Chef RamMohan has said something about Bharath's lack of effort and another cook's lack of luck, but he is optimistic, cheerful and friendly.

Madchef who stepped in when Chef RamMohan didn't come for couple of weeks is okay, not great, not bad ( we have seen him in CWC in previous seasons as substitute judge ).

Lot more to say about the Top Cooks and Dupe Cooks, along with Binny chechi. This show brings out the best in people as CWC once used to. It has been an absolute please watching both the Top Cooks and Dupe Cooks.

 

Mentor Chefs:

This is a great idea an well implemented.

Everyone wants to see celebrities in these shows instead of common man. Most celebrities cannot cook well. This show understands it well and gives each Top Cooku a mentor chef. They learn recipes and practice and come. ( I believe the show gives an idea to the contestants on what to cook ahead and adds challenges on top of it, which also was the same in CWC and it makes sense. These are not professionals who can take any cooking challenge and run with it ). Its all about reproducing the dishes which is not an easy task.

The playing field is levelled when mentor chefs come and help every contestants and its about which mentor chef's recipes were good enough for top cooks to learn and reproduce.

All 4 mentor chefs are excellent.

Chef Cheruba is the most talked about because she is pretty and Top Cooku Saidheena had to make some attention grabbing thing in this show and he had some cute lines for Cheruba ( Saidheena is old but he doesn't look like that ). Dupe Cooks like Adirchi and others also try to create content with her. She is sportive, has had a tough background because of her stuttering problem, but she is one of the success stories of this show. An example of unknown people coming and grabbing the public attention. Her mentees Sujatha akka and Vijayan master have consistently shined in the show. Vijayan master is a tough to beat contestant for the finals and Sujatha akka is not far behind.

Chef Saravanan: Like him a lot, friendly, innovative, down to earth and fun to be around. His dishes also speak a lot. From his mentees only NP is left and NP is a favorite to win this show. Lot of say about NP later.

Chef Sai: Also is seen having fun during the show and his dishes lifted Chaitra a lot. His and Chaitra combo makes her a tough to beat contestant.

Chef Yuvashri: She came in as wildcard for the two wildcard contestant Manisha and Subhash. Subash is around while Manisha just got eliminated but next week is wild card round. Her dishes are different in a good way and she is quickly garnering attention and is competing with the other mentor chefs well.

Overall, well done to the TCDC team on the mentor chefs

 

Chef Ram Mohan

 

Terrific grand finale, which lived up the entire season. Lot of tears, lot of emotions, bringing out the best in people, this what CWC used to stand for, other than all the fun and humor. TCDC did this so well in its very first season. Hats off! Hope this show comes back next year, bigger and better. Will miss it.


On another note, This is one of the reasons why Bhatt, Raufa Madam, Director Parthiban and the media masons are loved: