My Kitchen Rules stars Michael and Rielli have broken their silence on their explosive on-screen feud with Mark after their elimination.
The controversial couple were sent home during Monday night’s elimination after losing out to Danielle and Marko in the nail-biting elimination cook-off.
The self-proclaimed “Meat Master” and his partner Rielli have had no shortage of drama on the show, particularly with their number one rival, Mark.
Speaking exclusively to New Idea, Michael and Rielli have now revealed where they really stand with Mark and their other co-stars after ruffling feathers on the Channel Seven show.
“We’re really good friends with Tan, he’s just invited us to go to his birthday as well,” Michael told us.
“To be fair, we’re pretty good with 80% of the cast, we’d probably call them friends, we communicate almost daily.”
When asked if Mark is the only one they still have tension with, Michael replied: “I didn’t say that,” before Rielli explained why they no longer get on with their on-screen rival.
“I feel like off-screen, you have a bit more respect for all the other contestants. You can give them a bit of grace because when you’re filming, it’s quite high intensity,” she dished.
“But, I feel like Mark has taken it too far off-screen and in interviews, so it’s kind of rubbed us the wrong way. But Tan’s great, we love Tan.”
Addressing their rows on the series, Michael admitted that infamously calling himself the “Meat Master” might have put a “target” on his back.
“Calling myself the Meat Master, I feel like as soon as I brought that title upon myself, every single person just wants it,” he shared.
“It’s weird, it’s clear that Mark is nipping at my heels every chance he gets to try and steal the title, but even now that the show’s airing, I’ve got friends and family and different people that have taken it full to heart. They’re posting like ‘oh he should beat the Meat Master’ like you give yourself a title and everyone just comes for you!
“But you know what they say, it’s very rare to have haters doing better than you.”
Even though they were very outspoken in their criticisms of their rivals, Michael and Rielli insisted they always scored the other teams fairly, something they don’t believe everyone was doing on the show.
“We were sort of confused, now we’re able to watch it back, we thought that everyone would be like us and would be scoring the food based on the food, rather than how people speak at the table,” Michael explained.
“We’ve got such high respect for the quality of food and eating food in general that we scored everything as we got on the table – the flavours, the textures, the techniques.”
“Looking back on that now, there were definitely some things that we could have changed to stay in the competition, specifically my chat!” he added.
Their vocal opinions might have cost them their place in the competition, with Rielli insisting they were “shocked” when they were eliminated, losing out to Danielle and Marko by just one point.
“It was obviously really upsetting to go home, we felt like we did have a lot more to give, but at the same time, we went out delivering the best that we could deliver, so we went out with our heads held high,” Michael said.
“I’d definitely say that was our best cook throughout the competition, so we were shocked when we got eliminated,” Rielli added. “But, like Michael said, we were so proud of what we plated up.”
But do they think they should have made it all the way to the final?
“Yes, we definitely should have gone to the next round,” Rielli insisted.
“I feel like our dish was better than Danielle and Marko’s, but there was that one point difference that we obviously couldn’t scrape through. I feel like we could have taken it all the way to the end, but you know, s*** happens.”
But there are no hard feelings, and they are now rooting for their MKR besties, Maria and Bailey, to make it all the way to the final and be crowned the 2025 winners.
“We absolutely love Maria and Bailey and we feel like they’ve been delivering such high quality and technical food,” Michael said.
“I’d love to see those two go all the way; they’ve definitely been like our best friends throughout the series as well.”
Love them or loathe them, Michael and Rielli have certainly provided the entertainment on MKR next year and have become two of the show’s most unforgettable contestants.
So, will the “Meat Master” be returning to TV any time soon?
“I’d have to go for like Big Brother or The Amazing Race, maybe, The Block,” he teased.
As for Rielli, she wants to step away from the explosive on-screen rows and has her eye on a TV competition that has a “bit less drama” and a bit “more skill”.
“I’d love to do Dancing With The Stars or the Great Australian Bake Off or something like that, something more skill-based,” she added.
But first and foremost, Rielli has her eye on nabbing an invite to the 2026 Logie Awards, where she wants to meet Larry Emdur.
