My Kitchen Rules is back, and there’s drama cooking already!
One team not afraid to speak their mind is the self-declared “classy bogans”, Alisha and Deanne, from Adelaide.
Monday’s premiere hinted at a feud between the duo and Jane and Shane, a married couple from the Blue Mountains, and there’s clearly no love lost.
“It felt like they thought they were a bit better than us sitting around the table,” Alisha exclusively tells New Idea.
Food stylist Jane is already an experienced hand in the culinary world and even knows judge Colin Fassnidge, but Alisha and Deanne joke that her elite attitude would serve her better on MasterChef Australia.
“I guess they forgot that it’s home-style cooking and not five-star Michelin,” Alisha tells us.
“There’s another competition that has a mystery box. I think you’re supposed to be there, [Jane].”
Rivalry with Jane and Shane
The duo slammed Jane for her brutal judgements on Krysten and Lucy’s dishes, despite barely eating the food.
“The way that she was just judging the plating and things like that,” Deanne fumes.
“You haven’t even tasted the food.”
Alisha doubled down on her verdict that MKR is meant to focus on home cooking, quipping, “I still haven’t Googled it yet, but I don’t know what ‘considered cooking’ is,” referring to Jane’s on-air comment.
Favouritism row?
When it came out that Jane had a previous connection to judge Colin, whom she’d worked with as a food stylist, Alisha and Deanne admit they were worried she’d have an unfair advantage.
“I was like, ‘What has this competition turned into? Is there going to be favouritism?'” Deanne says.
“We thought that might give her a leg up on the competition.”
“I feel like she had maybe a bit more of a friendship there than she was letting on,” Alisha adds.
Despite that, there are no hard feelings against Colin, with Deanne saying, “Not that we have favourites [between Colin and Manu], but if we did, it would be Colin.”
“Don’t underestimate us”
In the episode, Alisha and Deanne were voted by their rivals as the team most likely to be eliminated first. However, they argue that they were unfairly judged.
“It was quite intimidating just seeing that we were sort of already put down from the get-go,” Alisha says.
“It wasn’t a nice feeling. Me and Dee left the first dinner feeling a little bit down, I guess the fact that everyone was already judging us on our personalities.”
While Deanne insists they aren’t easily rattled, she adds, “We all banter and joke and not even blink an eye at it, but that was a bit hard, being judged on that.”
Warning viewers not to make the same judgement, they insist that MKR has never seen “two people like us before”, promising “big emotions” and plenty of laughs.
Their rival Jane says they’re serving “a lot of nonsense”, but they argue their “chaotic” energy is their secret weapon.
Describing themselves as “octopuses” in the kitchen, Alisha says that as busy mothers, they’re not beginners to high-pressure multitasking. They’re just doing it with microphones on this time!
“We’re not fake”
Despite some strong opinions, the duo insist they aren’t “nasty” and stand by everything they said on air.
“Me and Dee are already very much opinionated, a bit in your face, will say things and sort of just be straight at you,” Alisha says.
“[We] are just very to the point, and we’ll stand our ground. I think [viewers] are going to be like, they are real. We were never fake at all.”
Despite the heat in the kitchen (and from their rivals), the duo found themselves in their element on TV, and loved every second.
“It was exciting,” Alisha says of the filming process.
“[It was the] first time I was ever mic’d up, I was loving it.”
While Deanne adds, “When we left, we were like, ‘Where’s our mics?'”
And they were in their “element” as Instant Restaurant guests, where they enjoyed having “one or two drinks” and “saying what we want to say to people”.
Camera crew kitchen chaos
One thing they didn’t expect was the influence the cameras would have on their cooking!
“You’d add something whilst you’re cooking, and if you are getting that part on camera, they’d be like, ‘Could you do that again?'” Alisha explains.
“You’re like, great, that bit of salt in there is now going to be really salty because I’ve had to do it again so they can catch that on camera.
“You’re being watched the whole time, so it’s definitely a lot of pressure. It does add that little bit of extra time where the pressure’s on.”
