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From losing her children at a young age to starting her food business at 77; All you need to know about MasterChef India's late Urmila Jamnadas Asher aka Baa

ETimes.in | Last updated on - Apr 9, 2025, 12:27 IST
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From losing her children at a young age to starting her food business at 77; All you need to know about MasterChef India's late Urmila Jamnadas Asher aka Baa

MasterChef India's Baa aka Urmila Jamnadas Asher passed away at the age of 79, the homecook has been an inspiration for all, but her MasterChef journey was only a part of her long struggle. Here's all you need to know about her:

2/8

​Married at a young age, faced the tragedy of losing her 3 kids


Gujjuben has been a resilient woman, she got married at the age of 19 and was blessed with three kids but the tragedy hit her and she lost her three children. Her daughter was barely 2 years old when she fell and passed away while her elder son suffered from brain tumor and the younger son passed away while returning home after delivering food tiffin.

3/8

​Used her cooking skills to manage expenses


When tragedy struck at her home, she decided to make cooking her medium to manage expenses. She loved cooking and used that skill as her strength.

4/8

​Started tiffin business to support in finances

Baa started her tiffin business while her husband was working and making the ends meet. Both of them made sure that their grandson had everything he needed during his growing up years and didn't compromise on his education.

5/8

​Her grandson's accident became a turning point

Baa's grandson Harsh had met with a tragic accident due to which he lost his upper lip. The accident affected him so much that he slipped into depression, but Urmila ben made sure she took care of all of them. That is when Lockdown happened and Baa started selling achaar. This became the turning point for their lives.

6/8

​Started with Gujjuben Na Nasta and YouTube

With her grandson's support, Baa decided to start Gujjuben Na Nasta and it became a quick hit among the people. On April 15, 2021, her grandson encouraged her to start her YouTube channel and share the recipes. The channel garnered a lot of attention from many chefs and Garima Arora and Ranveer Brar were also two of them.

7/8

​Entered MasterChef India

Urmila ben became a huge inspiration for her community and women all around when she entered the show MasterChef India, despite being the first one to get eliminated, she received a lot of praises for her dishes. Chef Vikas even revealed that he used to watch her YouTube videos whenever he got stuck in making dishes from the gujarati cuisine.

8/8

MasterChef became a gamechanger

Baa's home kitchen got boosted with her appearance on the show. She even started selling the snacks and other orders from her home and started another venture serving home cooked meals.

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Copyright © Jun 10, 2026, 10.00PM IST Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All rights reserved. For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service