MasterChef India Season 7: Nayanjyoti Saikia defeats Santa Sharma and Suvarna Bagul to lift trophy

The television reality show MasterChef India made its comeback after 3 years. Season 7 started on January 2, 2023, and after a competitive fight between 16 contestants, on March 31, 2023, the winner of the show was announced. After fighting a number of challenges given by the judges, Assamese boy Nayanjyoti Saikia lifted the trophy.

On Friday, MasterChef India Season 7 had its grand finale and the last challenge of the show was given by chef Sanjeev Kapoor. In the last challenge the Top 3 contestants had to make a 3-course meal and whosoever impressed the judges with their innovative and flavourful dish was to be announced as the winner. After defeating Santa Sharma and Suvarna Bagul in the grand finale, Nayanjyoti Saikia lifted the trophy. Santa Sharma from Assam became the first runner-up and followed by Suvarna Bagul from Mumbai.

The winner of the reality show won a trophy along with a Golden chef’s coat. Other than this, Nayanjyoti also took home prize money of Rs 25 Lakhs as the winning amount. He belongs to a small village in  Assam and his journey in the show started when chef Vikas Khanna traveled to Assam in search of an Assamese home cook and got impressed by his cooking skills. After testing Nayanjyoti’s cooking skills, Chef Vikas Khanna invited him to participate in the show, and all his hard work paid off when he became the winner after giving a tough fight to the other contestants.

While talking to Pinkvilla, Nayanjyoti Saikia revealed what he will do with the winning amount and said, “I think I should save my winning amount for the future. In the future, I want to open my own restaurant so that I can present Northeast cuisine to the world. Many people don't know about Northeast cuisine. Santa Ji and I tried to make Northeast cuisine in MasterChef India, but that is not even 1%  of it. There are a lot of delicacies that are produced here. So I would like to showcase this in my restaurant, and I need a huge amount for this so the winning amount would be helpful then.”

MasterChef India Season 7 was judged by chefs Vikas Khanna, Ranveer Brar, and Garima Arora. The previous seasons of the reality show aired on Star Plus, however, this season was broadcasted on Sony Entertainment Television and Sony LIV app. 

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