Exclusive! MasterChef India Season 7 judges Ranveer Brar, Garima Arora and Vikas Khanna on gender neutrality in the kitchen

Breaking stereotypes is important to build a progressive society. And this is being translated in the professional kitchen as well, where earlier there were only a handful of female chefs in big restaurants and hotels.

Picking up on this, three celebrity chefs - Garima Arora, Vikas Khanna and Ranveer Brar, who are gearing up to judge the seventh season of MasterChef India - indulged in a conversation around gender neutrality in the kitchen with OTTplay.

Ranveer said, "I think that we all are breaking stereotypes somewhere or the other. Even 10-15 years ago, when one decided to become a chef, the profession was not that glamorous or cool. So, people were breaking a stereotype then."

Citing the example of Garima's achievements, who is first female Indian Michelin-star chef, Ranveer added, "One stereotype is that Indian women cannot be in a professional kitchen, or even if they are, it is just for the sake of tokenism and not as a result of their excellence. That has been broken by Garima. She has done it all and inspired many others to follow suit."

Being the owner of the restaurant Gaa, Garima said, "All that I look for is excellent workers in my kitchen and gender does not matter there. All that matters is that you are good at your job."

"It is very easy to take the conversation to the level of activism and tough to remain gender neutral, but Garima has observed and decided everything being genuinely neutral. Because after a certain level, efficiency comes into play and that goes beyond gender," Ranveer quickly added.

However, Vikas pointed out, "I think we need both energies on the table - men and women. It is not to put one up and the other down; it is about working together and in harmony in every walk of life."

Seconding him, Garima said, "Yes, please do not get me wrong, we need both Yin and Yang, because men and women bring different sensibilities to the table."

MasterChef India Season 7 will air from January 2, 2023, on SonyLIV and Sony Entertainment Television.