The relationship Meg and Simon have is a lovely one. Tonight they were having major issues with their oven and not once did they get angry with each other

Meg clearly had not thought about the editing of My Kitchen Rules and the fact there were going to be sheep jokes put in at the New Zealands team expense. As she said “Sometimes we just jump over the fence and grab a sheep and take it home.”

Entree was pan-seared scallops with broccoli ginger puree and lemon beurre blanc, main was NZ lamb with kumera puree, asparagus, port plum jus, and dessert was pavlova.

Jennifer thought the menu was overly simple.

They had a few dramas in the kitchen with one of their ovens not working properly when she was cooking the pavs. Also she could not get her lemon beurre blanc right and kept on turfing it.

The judges loved the entree. However the other contestants had their claws out. Jennifer said she was disappointed with everything when she looked down at the plate. Also she said she had no beurre blanc. Tom could not taste the ginger and said he was a little bit disappointed.

Steve disagreed and said he could not fault it.

Tom continued to bitch, saying cooking lamb was easy and if they could not “slam this in it was fail”.

Pete Evans batted it straight back at him and said “Cooking twelve racks of lamb is that an easy job?”

And it wasn’t because the oven was being temperamental and the lamb was not cooking properly. And some were undercooked.

Manu said it was a pleasant dish but it was not there yet. All of the contestants complained that the lamb was too rare except for Scott.

The pavlovas looked shocking, they were brown. Pete said what they presentation was pretty bad.

Tom said it was one of the worst desserts he had had. Carla said “she would not feed to her cat” Not sure why Tom found that so funny, who feeds pav to their cat?

David was nice about it and said he was happy with his dessert.

The contestants were told about the oven issue and I think there were some sympathy points there. Qld boys gave them a seven, NSW gave them a six, SA gave them five, Vic gave them a four, as did WA.

Manu gave them an eight for entree, five for main and three for dessert.

Peter gave them an eight, six for main and two for dessert. Lowest score ever for a dish on My Kitchen Rules? They scored a total of 58 and they are on the bottom of the ladder.

Tonight Western Australian team of Angela and Justine created a Garden of Eden themed restaurant, however they missed an important element of it and that was the sin. Ok so some of the questions on the tree were a little bit saucy. But girls you have Manu and Pete sitting at the end of the table, at least try playing Truth, Dare or Promise.

One question you could ask Princess Jennifer was is she quite as vacuous as she appears.

In this Adelaide Now article Leigh says of her cooking partner that her friend Jennifer was intelligent, however quite frankly I have not seen any sign of this.

The cutsie act will get tedious if it keeps going on in the up coming episodes. “I’m excited” and the sighing “yeah” is grating. At least she can’t annoy her work colleagues as she works with her husband who allegedly has an online gambling business. So that is how she can get treated like a princess….

Tom and Carla are not going to be the nice team either with a few of their clangers and they definitely playing the game, I suspect by tonight’s episode their masks will well and truly have slipped.

On arrival Carla said “Justine is attractive… for a truck driver.”

Expectations were high for Angela and Justine. As Angela teaches hospitality and once worked in the kitchen of a vietnamese restaurant.

Their menu was Duck salad, Pork chops roasted with proscuitto, apple and gorgonzola, and Brownie and Semi-Freddo for dessert.

There were no real disasters in the kitchen apart from leaving the onion from the stock.

They were very generous with their plating. The duck salad was huge. The flavours were good, but they had not let the duck rest. Other then that Pete Evans loved the taste.

Jennifer thought her “duck was a bit tough….Yeah”

For the main course Manu thought the risotto was boring but the thought the pork and the companion flavours was good. Whereas Pete liked the risotto.

However Tom disagreed and said “Don’t let the fact that my plate is almost empty undermine what I am about to tell you, as I was peckish. Thought the gorgonzola detracted from the flavour of the pork”.

Jennifer thought “apple was to crunchy for me… it still tastes like an apple.. Yeah.” What did she think an apple was going to taste like a banana?

For dessert Manu loved the flavour of the semi-freddo, however Pete thought there were too many things on the plate.

Qld scored a 6, SA scored a 7, NSW a 7, NZ gave an 8, and Vic scored a 6.

Manu scored them seven for entree, six for main and nine for dessert.

Pete scored them seven for entree, seven for main and eight for dessert.

They got a total of 78 which puts them on top on the leader board.

Tonight the South Australian princesses are cooking it will be interesting to see if the standards are high. The theme is burlesque. Yeah.

Normally on My Kitchen Rules we see contestants in this stage of the competition cook dishes they have never tried before which is ludicrous enough, however I thought it had reached new heights when this Helen and Steve revealed they had not used the oven before as it had only been installed the previous evening. I was thinking wouldn’t you at least bake a cake to test it?

However before I castigate them too much it has been revealed today in the Herald Sun that they had not been cooking in their homes but in their brothers. In fact only four of the 12 couples cook in their own kitchens and this is because of logistics. They need to have the space for the control room and generator.

Also it appears, the kitchen and where the contestants dine has to be separate and considering the trend is open plan living this must be an issue for a lot of people who want to go on the show.

From the ads we could see Leigh and Jennifer from South Australia were being set up as the villains. Leigh looks the most surly, but Jennifer is going to get a lot of air time due to her Paris Hilton type qualities including carrying around a small dog and appearing completely vacuous. Oh and she also has the annoying habit of  sighing “yeah” alot.

However I also found Tom who is partnered with “friend” Clare to be rather arrogant. Both Clare and Tom declared they were just friends, and they don’t want anything else but I am not convinced.  For Tom to only think of Clare as a friend would go against the Ladder Theory which states that guys cannot think of girls as friends.

Steve and Helen from Sydney were the first to cook for the other teams their menu was Saganaki Prawns, Open-style moussaka served with Greek Salad, and Cypriot Pancake with vanilla icecream and walnut preserve.

Their big issue in the kitchen was they could not work the stove so the lamb shoulder for the moussaka was transfered to a frypan, but Steve finally figured out the cryptic instructions and they were able to start cooking.

Their “restaurant” was obviously a greek theme and they went the full kitschness with it including greek statues. This set up the atmosphere nicely.

However Leigh and Jennifer wanted more Greek. How they thought this could be achieved was unclear. Did they want a mini version of the acropolis as the centre piece on the table?

After the judges arrived the other “surprise” of  the mystery couple, Simon and Meg, the New Zealand team.  I dont’ know what the big deal is about having a NZ team there is more rivalry between NSW and Queensland at State of Origin time. There is no way the NZ people will win as the aussie viewers would be peeved to see the $250,000 go off shore.

Helen and Steve argued about the presentation of the entree. Steve wanted lots of sauce and  Helen was not wanting to go the rustic route. Again did these people not watch the last two seasons, Manu Feildel is always going on about how he likes lots of sauce.

Leigh and Jennifer thought it needed seasoning. Justine the truck driver from Perth snapped back there is enough salt in the cheese.

It was then revealed by the New Zealand team that they had not had Greek cuisine before as there are no Greek restaurants in New Zealand.

Ironically it was Pete Evans who complained about the lack of sauce not Manu.

The main course was Moussaka and it looked like stew on a plate, very unappetising.  Pete thought it was a good honest home cooked meal. Manu was not liking the sauce he thought it was far too reduced.

Jennifer picked on every aspect of the moussaka and then at the end said “good effort”. She also  thought the ice-cream was a bit eggy. She wasn’t going to win a popularity contest anytime soon around the dinner table.

The Army boys from Queensland, David and Scott, who appear quite droll scored them a 7, the WA girls gave a 7, Thomas and Carla  gave a 7, the New Zealand team gave a 7, but  Jennifer and Leigh gave a 6. This gave Steve and Helen a total of 34 out of 50.

The judges scored as well with Manu giving an eight for entree, a five for main, and an eight for dessert. Whereas Pete scored the entree a seven, the main a five and dessert an eight.

This came to a total of 75 which if previous seasons are anything to go by should not land them at the bottom, as usually one team totally tanks.

My Kitchen Rules season three was launched today with a lunch at Channel Seven studios, and being the professional I decided to use my scarf for something other then an accessory…. well you know it is a tough gig.

The judges Pete Evans and Manu arrived on a boat and then gave a welcome speech, and yes the obligatory “this season is better than last” line was delivered. I think we will be the judge of that.

Having said that I did post review this morning - saying as a reality TV show it does tick all the boxes.

I met a couple of the contestants, the NSW potential in-laws Sam and Jillian who were both lovely and spoke about the long hours the filming took. Which why there are tears….

Unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to talk to Jennifer one of the princesses from Adelaide to ask her what she thought of her edit. As she is the current villain of the show she was in high demand.

My Kitchen Rules premieres tonight on Channel 7 at 7.30pm and screens four nights a week from Monday to Thursday.

Just when I consider My Kitchen Rules judge Manu Feildel a little bit 2010, he pops back on the screen showing he does have the onscreen TV presence to engage the viewer. This is a positive thing as My Kitchen Rules is going into its all important third season and the show needs to maintain the momentum it had last year.

The cooking competition reality TV show should rate well, as it is entertaining television, because it ticks of the reality TV boxes.

These are:

1. Two good looking personable male hosts, Manu Feidel and Pete Evans, MKR producers obviously realise the majority of Reality TV viewers are women;

2. However for the men there are some cute female contestants, and a few guys that may also appeal to the fairer sex, well if you like droll men in army uniforms;

3. Casting is great, even in episode one, we see who the villains are, and it is not just Jennifer and Leigh the “princesses” from SA, yes Tom I am casting a side eye at you;

4. The savvy casting will ensure lots of chatter both online, at work and in the media because everyone is going to want to have an opinion;

5. Because of said casting, friction and sniping is already occurring around the table  and by some of the looks the judges give one of the girls by episode two you can see they don’t particularly like them;

6. The cooking and drama in the kitchen is entertaining with the usual stuff ups,  forgotten ingredients – there will be tears; and

7. Also the new $250,000 has upped the ante so expect much more strategic scoring as the show progresses.

There does not appear to be too much fiddling with the format at this stage. The judges and the teams go to each others homes and have to score the couple cooking and then after the two groups have completed this they will go back to the My Kitchen Rules kitchen where the eliminations will commence.

It could be argued including a New Zealand couple into the mix to try and bring up some trans-Tasman rivalry is a format change. But seriously who gives a rats? They can’t win as when they have to cook some ethnic food they are going to struggle, apparently there are no Greek restaurants in New Zealand. I am sensing a business opportunity for George Calombaris there, I wonder what the industrial relations laws are like over there?

The only thing that irritated me was the whole judges deadpanning as they ate the food, and looking concerned and then breaking into a smile and saying I loved it. It felt a little drawn out and we have seen that trick in season’s one and two.  Other then that My Kitchen Rules is a lovely diversion from all the weight loss shows on our screens.

My Kitchen Rules starts tonight, Monday 30 January at 7.30pm and will screen four nights a week  from Monday to Thursday in this timeslot. 

Channel Seven has just allowed the other channels to duke it out in the 7.00pm time slot, and has announced that My Kitchen Rules one of the veteran reality shows will premiere on Monday 30 January at 7.30pm. It will air Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm on Channel Seven.

This year the only new twist that we know about this season is there is a team from New Zealand and the prize money has increased to $250,000. For a look at the cast go to this blog post here.

The other show on Mondays is going to be trashtastic is Please Marry My Boy. It will screen at 8.30pm on Monday. I will post a review of episode one soon. This show based on the US program Momma’s Boys is a dating show where the mother selects the date for her sons. Go here to see the cast list for the show.

My Kitchen Rules on Channel Seven – Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm

Please Marry My Boy on Channel Seven – Monday nights at 8.30pm

When your the new girlfriend with a tawdry past to reality TV’s boy next door, Pete Evans, you really need to not start talking to the tabloid newspapers.

Unfortunately Nicky Watson, Pete Evan’s new squeeze has not heeded this advice and talked to the Sunday Telegraph, hitting back at an article from last week where his former partner and mother of his children Astrid Ellinger talked about how she wasn’t happy with the new girlfriend.

However Nicky who now lives in Sydney returns fire:

KIWI model Nicky Watson has fired back at celebrity chef Pete Evans’ ex-partner’s “low” attack on her, saying she is down to earth and just misunderstood.

Watson last week came under fire from former competitive skier Astrid Ellinger, who had two children with Evans during their 11-year relationship.

It remains unclear how long Watson and Evans have been dating, however Waston confirmed she had been living inSydney for “a while now”.

“I love Australia, I love New Zealand. I love both countries,” Watson said.

The Christchurch-born socialite refused to say whether she was living under the same roof as the My Kitchen Rules star. “There is a family involved here and everyone needs to be protected, I will do my part in that.”

She said claims by Evans’ former partner that she was not down to earth were wrong but she refused to get into a slinging match.

“It’s over my head (how Astrid has treated me) and I won’t go that low.”

She added: “I have been portrayed (by Astrid) in a way different to who I really am.” Watson – who once featured in a one-hour documentary and admitted attempting suicide, using hard drugs, having threesomes and attending horse races with no underwear – said she was moving to Sydney to avoid media attention in Auckland.

“I have never sought attention. How many social events do you think I’ve been to? I can count them on one hand. I don’t seek publicity.”

Do Pete Evans and Manu Feildel have a clause in their contract that states no guys hotter then themselves can be contestants on the show? As I look over the contestants I am not seeing much eye candy for the over thirty woman.

Masterchef Australia learnt the hard way last year – don’t cast at least one straight hot male (ie. someone with a fuckability factor – yes that is a technical term) in the over thirty age demographic the female viewers in that age bracket are not happy. A person can only ogle Gary, George and Matt for so long. OK that is one of my many theories why Masterchef dropped in ratings and I am sticking by it.

Anyway unless you like the preppy look or men in army uniforms there is really not much in the My Kitchen Rules cast, and of course there are plenty of hot girls. There is even a MILF!

Anyway here is the list of contestants:

Group 1:
New South Wales – Steve & Helen (Siblings)
Western Australia – Angela & Justine (Teacher and Truckie)
South Australia – Leigh & Jennifer (Florist and Princess)
New Zealand – Simon & Meg (Kiwis)
Queensland – David & Scott (Soldier mates)
Victoria – Thomas & Carla (Just friends)

Group 2:
New South Wales – Sam & Jillian (Potential in-laws)
Western Australia – Emma & Andrew (Engaged scientists)
South Australia – Nic & Rocco (Childhood mates)
Tasmania – Megan & Andy (Sales Reps)
Queensland – Peter & Gary (Lawyer and Doctor)
Victoria – Carly & Emily (Competitive Sisters)

However the series does look like it will be an entertaining one. Manu Feildel and Pete Evans are back as host/judges. Also the same team is back to judge when they are all back in the kitchen – Guy Grossi, Tobie Puttock, Liz Egan and Karen Martini.

As I have written previously, I would like to see a critic around that table rather then all chefs. In fact I would flick Tobie as I find him lacking in charisma, but I am sure he has some fans.

Also the prize money has been increased to $250,000, I missed this but picked it up on TV Tonight blog, as he clearly sticks to the more important issues.

My Kitchen Rules will be airing in a matter of weeks and slowly the names are starting to be leaked.

In NSW Samantha teams up with her potential future mother-in-law Jillian. Sam who is only 23 has been dating Jillian’s son for three year. They have a “high end boutique” approach.

The other NSW team is also from Sydney and they are a brother and sister team of Helen 46, and Steve, 51. They have a Greek background, and their parents owned a fish and chip shop.  Helen when she was 16 had to take over the cooking for her family as her mother had died.

Tasmania will have a newly engaged couple Megan Woodman and Andy Appleby, and they look like we might see a bit of fire between them.

The Mercury article states:

“I think just the fact we’re in a relationship as a couple, so we work together really well because we know each other so well,” Ms Woodman said. “I think we can bicker and fight about things and not hold back.”

“I run around like a headless chook, I’m a bit full-on,” Ms Woodman said.

“Andy’s more laid back and relaxed, which annoys me.”

Meanwhile there’s some disagreement about who’s in charge, but the situation seems to have worked itself out.

“Megan thinks she’s the boss and I like to let her think she’s the boss, but I really am,” Mr Appleby said.

Last week a commenter on this blog was querying what happened to My Kitchen Rules judge Pete Evans marriage, and it was like the tabloid newspaper gods shone down on us as low and behold there was a story about it in the Sunday Telegraph.

Pete Evans split earlier this year from his long term partner Astrid Ellinger with whom he has two children, apparently has a new girlfriend kiwi model Nicola Watson.

Astrid lets fly about the My Kitchen Rules judge in the interview:

“He’s got more famous and it inevitably changes anyone,” the mother-of-two said. “All I’m going to say is Pete has had down-to-earth girlfriends (before) so I’m not sure what’s happened now. I’m a down-to-earth and natural person. I don’t know what she is like.”

Ms Ellinger, who lives in North Bondi with her children, refused to go into the details of their split, which had been reported last month as “amicable” after more than a decade together. “She can have him if she wants.”

Watson, also known as Nicola Robinson, is a prominent Kiwi socialite and model formerly married to millionaire Warriorsleague club owner Eric Watson, whom she divorced in 2003. Her subsequent romances have included Sydney nightclub boss Justin Hemmes and ex-All Blacks Matthew Ridge and Ali Williams.

During an infamous 2007 TV interview, Watson admitted attempting suicide, undergoing three breast augmentations, using hard drugs, having threesomes, watching pornography from a “young age” and forgetting to wear underwear while attending horse races.

Watson recently revealed she no longer wanted to be famous, would revert to her birthname and seek refuge working at a day spa in a rural NZ community.

Ms Ellinger was clearly upset about the rising TV star’s new love. “I have googled (Watson) and I am shocked, she is not the type of girl Pete would usually go for. I am shocked,” she said. “I do not know what has happened.”

“I don’t care. I am just getting on with my life and they can go to it.”

Ms Ellinger quizzed The Sunday Telegraph about Watson, asking: “What can you tell me about her?”

My guess it is a what is commonly known as a mid-life crisis.