Alisha and Deanne were sent packing on My Kitchen Rules, but they’re not taking it lying down.
The Adelaide “classy bogans” lost out to Angus and Simon by one point on Monday, narrowly missing out on making it into Kitchen HQ.
However, the best friends exclusively tell New Idea that they felt they deserved to qualify over the boys, challenging them to a do-over cook-off.
Angus and Simon went from flirting with Alisha and Deanne to becoming determined to beat them in the second round, and the girls weren’t happy about their jibes.
“I think, honestly, they thought, we need to be a bit more opinionated, need to bring our A-game, but they had more words to say than what they did cooking,” Deanne says.
Alisha argued that Angus and Simon “definitely changed” in the second round, becoming more outspoken after Jane and Shane‘s elimination.
“Angus just kind of went a bit ham and they did turn a little bit villains,” she says of their round two antics.
“I feel like it came became about taking me and D out, there were just little things like you look like k***heads.”
The girls were devastated to miss out on Kitchen HQ but reveal that part of them had been ready to go home because of how “mentally and physically” draining filming was.
While they have no bad blood with Angus and Simon now, and remain close friends, it’s been hard for Alisha and Deanne to watch the show back.
“Watching it is like reliving it again, taking in a lot of the feels,” Deanne admits.
Looking back, the friends wonder if they were judged more harshly than the other teams because of their strong personalities.
“We were always judged a bit more on our personalities,” Alisha argues.
“I personally think that it was still, we were always judged a bit more on our personalities.
“I think scoring around the table and stuff, we were always going to be going to be judged on our personalities.
“And I do believe that, maybe if me and Dee weren’t the personalities we were, would have we made it further? I reckon. I don’t think it was all based on food.”
They certainly made an impression, with Colin Fassnidge and Manu Feildel giving them awards for being the loudest contestants, and they don’t regret showcasing their personalities.
Alisha and Deanne joke they have “too much personality to be in the kitchen” anyway and say they’d love to take on Travel Guides next.
“I think we need to be more on camera with everyone else,” Deanne says.
“[We’d like to do] Travel Guides where we can just travel around together and have a blast and literally just show the world who we are because I think there are a lot of people that love us,” Alisha adds.
Their MKR stint might have been short-lived, but we won’t forget them anytime soon!
Scroll down to recap all of Alisha and Deanne’s most iconic MKR moments.
Rivalry with Jane and Shane
Alisha and Deanne certainly made their feelings about Jane and Shane clear during their time on the show.
“It felt like they thought they were a bit better than us sitting around the table,” Alisha exclusively told 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 told us.
“There’s another competition that has a mystery box. I think you’re supposed to be there, [Jane].”
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 fumed.
“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 admitted 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 said.
“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 added.
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 argued that they were unfairly judged.
“It was quite intimidating just seeing that we were sort of already put down from the get-go,” Alisha said.
“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 insisted they aren’t easily rattled, she added, “We all banter and joke and not even blink an eye at it, but that was a bit hard, being judged on that.”
“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.”
