Luck had it that he was also offered to do a pilot for My Kitchen Rules, yet a similar situation occurred.
“They said ‘do you want to do a pilot’ and I thought ‘why not, I’ve got nothing to lose’,” he said.
“When the pilot was done, it went to the executives and I lost the job again .... because of the French accent.”
Heartbroken Manu thought he would have to pack his bags and give up on appearing on TV until Pete Evans came in and saved the day.
“Pete turned around when they offered him the job (and said) ‘but I want to work with the right person’,” he revealed.
“They said I was off the list because of my accent, but Pete said he wanted to work with me and they changed their mind, and I was back on.”