Masterchef contestants create record with Chocolate Eclair pyramid

Gurgaon: The contestants of cookery reality show "MasterChef India" Wednesday unveiled the tallest Chocolate Eclair pyramid and entered the Limca Books of Records.

The pyramid that stands 8 metres (26ft) tall and 4.5 metres wide was displayed at the Ambience Mall in Gurgaon. It has been built by the top 12 contestants of the show along with the judges Kunal Kapoor and Ajay Chopra. As many as 25 other chefs from Leela Kempinki Hotel too helped them in creating it in just 72 hours. The pyramid is covered with 16,000 chocolate-filled eclairs and to make that 1000 litres of milk, 800 kg of flour, 500 kg of butter, 450 kg of chocolate and as many as 20,000 egg have been used. Edible colours like golden, bronze and silver were also consumed. While the entire preparation took 72 hours, it took 12 days for the chefs to conceptualise and work out the whole thing. The top 12 contestants are Joe Baath, Ankita Chakravorty, Jayanandan Bhasker, Kandla Nijhowne, Pritesh Chotani, Shweta Pareek, Parul Sukhwani, Archana Chavan, Radhika Agarwaal, Zebi Zubair, Pankaj Bhadouria and Smita Dugar. The show is hosted by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar is aired on Star plus. The contestants couldn`t hold their excitement. "I am really happy. I enjoyed each and every moment while building the pyramid," said Dugar. Radhika said: "We have been given very tough and challenging tasks during the show. But I would say this was the toughest ever task. I am very proud of myself that I have been a part of it. For Chakravorty it was "a proud moment". Commenting upon this unique challenge, Kunal Kapoor told IANS: "As judges we have been throwing challenges to the contestants which are very hard and tricky. This time around we thought why not have a challenge which is challenging enough for both of us. Something we have not done before." Ajay Chopra said: "When the idea of making the pyramid came into the mind, we thought we would attempt something which is 5ft to 6ft tall. But then we decided to do something bigger than this. It is very glorifying that we have finally done it and made a record. "When we started working on the logistics of the entire pyramid, we were nervous but when things started falling in place everything became simple." Kapoor says the difficult part was "understanding the height the angle of the pyramid and how many pieces would be required. Temperature was also the key issue but thankfully it was cold outside. Had it been warm it would have been a problem." IANS