MKR – Mon, Feb 29

It’s the Newcastle Dads’ turn to cook, and we find out one is a physio and the other a dietitian. Nice to see two blokes who have maintained such a strong friendship since they were sprogs.
This is the first time I’ve seen contestants stroll to the shops on MKR – should have got one of those handy granny trolleys so they don’t have to lug it all home. Then the physio picks up a carton of eggs and shakes it.

Why!?
I’m baffled by the egg shaking.

Who the heck does that? I want to shake him at this point. They are advertising Coles Free Range Eggs (well, alleged free range – according to Choice “For eggs to be labelled free range, the Model Code of Practice says there should be a maximum of 1500 hens per hectare. But many commonly available “free range” brands do not adhere to this, with some brands keeping as many as 10,000 chooks per hectare.” And guess how many Coles has?)
The menu
Entree: “Double the fun”: Twice-baked cheese souffle
Main: “Sweet Swine” Prosciutto-wrapped pork fillet with potato puree and honey sage jus.
Dessert: “Crunch Time” Chocolate mousse with hazelnut praline and raspberry coulis
Discussing the menu, the judges are looking fab – as always- and The Fass is thrilled by the main: “You had me at pork.”
Can't we just keep these two? Who needs Pete and Manu
Can’t we just keep these two? Who needs Pete and Manu

The guys are cruising through the shopping, stopping to taste test prosciutto, and buy decent dark chocolate for their dessert (Zana, I still haven’t forgotten your shameful use of Cadbury Dairy Milk). Last stop is for booze at Liquorland and this episode is much more blatant in its advertising than some of the previous ones.
Whose genius idea was it to walk?
Whose idea was it to walk?

At home (looks like a rental for the show) they quickly set up “Sand and Steel” and the guests get some kinetic sand to play with. It’s fun stuff so I’m hoping The Fass will give it a go.
They are in the kitchen as the clock starts at 3:00 and are straight on to the dessert elements that need time to set. But Cookie (the dietitian) scrambles his first anglaise for the ice cream but gets it right second time round (no four goes to make mayo-type disaster here).
Then they get on to both the entree and mains prep – Hazel and Lisa could learn some time management skills off these guys. Both seem to be capable cooks, whereas the other teams have had an obvious chef and sous chef vibe (except the Italians).

Here come the guests and what the hell is Mr Chops wearing?

Shirt stolen off an 80yo man at the local RSL.
Shirt stolen off an 80yo man at the local RSL.

Inside, Lauren is the most chipper we’ve seen her since she bombed, and actually compliments the decor and plays with the sand.
But Hazel and Lisa don’t have much time for new Lauren, based on their view she is scoring strategically. “I don’t have much time for cheaters,” Lisa says. Hmm, has she learned yet there was a whopping big hair in Lauren’s meal?
In the kitchen the Mates are happy with how the souffles are looking – what a shame they only brought 12 ramekins with them and can’t test one. And since it looks like a rental, they can’t just grab any old dish to do a tester in.
Here come The Fass and The Khoo, the latter looking like he’s off to a picnic in the Italian countryside.
10/10 for this skirt.
10/10 for this skirt.

The lads start plating up the entree and it looks delish. There’s a minor hiccup of getting a plate stuck in the saucepan – yep, that’s as close as these fellas come to a tense moment in the kitchen.


It’s chew o’clock … And The Khoo establishes her claim to be a cheese expert by saying she lived in Paris for eight years. She is happy with their use of parmesan and cheddar, but wanted more flavour from their side veg – and she tells them to roast the tomatoes next time. Colin says they should have sprinkled cheese on top for cheesey crunch, but he still praises their effort.
The guests are enjoying their souffles, except Dee reckons hers is overcooked. Lauren has been bodysnatched by aliens and replaced with a nice Lauren who hails the souffle as “the dish of the competition so far”.
The Stepsies are baffled by the MKR equivalent of doing this:

I'm crazy enthusiastic for no reason, like my friend Lauren.
I’m crazy enthusiastic for no reason, like my friend Lauren.

But they console themselves in their confessional to camera by cackling that Lauren should go eat her spaghetti in a bag: “No-one else did.”
Twinning at insults.
Twinning at insults.

Back in the kitchen they get on to mains and things are going well until the power goes out, but it’s only for a minute. Talk about an anti-climax.
Cookie is feeling the pressure a bit and dithering over how well he should cook the pork.
Emotions ... feelings
Emotions … feelings

Cook to please Pork Ambassador Colin, I say. At least they have enough to do a tester. They struggle a bit with the timing – this is where a meat thermometer would be handy.
Cookie moves on to the potato and you can tell he’s a serious cook because he’s using a drum sieve, which is painstaking work but gives super smooth mash.
They’ve obviously put a lot of thought into the plating up – it looks great.


It’s chew time … and The Fass is impressed by their gutsy effort in cooking 36 medallions or pork, and doing it well. “The dish is actually like something I’ve had on the menu before.” The only fault he finds is that the sauce soaked into the mash. The Khoo is happy, too: “You couldn’t have done a better job.” She wanted a bit more butter in the puree (perhaps dietitian Cookie let his professional knowledge stay his hand).
Dee and Lauren both say their meat was overcooked – looks like the aliens brought original Lauren back.

Back in the kitchen the lads are making praline, while at the table Dee explains she doesn’t like choccy mousse, which is a shame for Husband of Dee, as he loves it. However, every night Dee confines him to a cupboard under the stairs, Harry Potter style, so no mousse for him.
They Mates are plating up and Cookie is a bit heavy handed with the dusting cocoa. The plating looks great and this is a much more complicated dessert than the last few we’ve seen.


Time to chew … The Khoo is happy (apart from the heavy layer of cocoa powder) but The Fass wanted more of his promised crunch. It was good, but not as delish as the main.
They’ve done well and deserve high scores. Apparently the dessert was confusing to Dee but it made her backflip on her claim she doesn’t like chocolate mousse.

Team scores: Dee and That Guy 8; Lauren and That Guy 8; Zesty Stepsies 8; Tarq and Joke Dad 7 (not wanting to relinquish top spot); Mr and Mrs Chops 9.
Judges: Entree Khoo 8, Fass 7; Main Khoo 9 (note how she pronounced the dish “fillay”), Fass 9; Dessert Khoo 7, Fass 7 (with the comment: “A lot of cocoa powder- must have got it on special”)
Total 87, which puts them at the top of the leaderboard, seven points above Tarq and Dad. Hooray – at least two pairs this round can cook!

Tomorrow night: It’s Dee Day! And we get to see poor Harry Potter fail spectacularly at pouring wine into a container with a very large neck.
wine2

Missed it by that much.
Missed it by that much.


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brain dead dave

Dee is for “divorce”.

Maz

It looks like they did go to the nearest Coles at The Junction. They walked there.

Didn’t show the Shopping Centre though. LOL.

Maz

Did Tomago Aluminium get sponsorship rights for this dinner?

brain dead dave

Shaking egg cartons.

Fail.

Maz

Geez, does being Half-Italian imbued you with special culinary powers? Roll-eyes.

Urggh-momentarily power black out. Over blown in the preview,

Maz

The Cookie crumbles.

brain dead dave

Seems there is more swine sitting around the table than on the plates.

Littlepetal

Carmine and Lauren are Italians too! So are the Italians boys from Group 2. Imagine an Italian cook off?

Maz

It would be interesting if they had all the self-identified Italians in one dinner round. 😉

Windsong

I feel like I want to ask, do the dads tonight manage to cook up some personality?

But that would be really catty and mean.

Liberty

Have to agree, I thought the whole show was boring tonight. Just didn’t grab me but then again, it’s all the same, repeat, repeat, repeat….

Littlepetal

I am looking forward to Eve and Jason’s score. They usually scored on the lower end even though they gave rave reviews

daisy

I hope you had a wonderful time in the Barossa Valley, Littlepetal.

Littlepetal

I am sure I will have a good time, Daisy. All my meals are sorted, thanks to the lovely Adelaide people here.

Maz

9

Littlepetal

Finally they are scoring fairly.

Maz

Rachel loves the word ‘unctuous’.

Maz

How does mousse leave you confused, Dee?

Littlepetal

Only 3 elements on the plate. Mousse, raspberries coulis and hazelnut praline.

Maybe Dee doesn’t know what mousse is 🙂

Liberty

She doesn’t appear to know what meatballs are either – according to the ad for tomorrow night’s show.

brain dead dave

Tarq is drowning under the embarrassing Dad jokes, at least three of them. I forgot who he was.

The guests are being swined and dined.

cuisinaire

Lauren critiqueing the entree as though she is a professional reviewer. Is she receiving instructions from Kitchen HQ via her sparkly Bluetooth? Watching the opinionated one and the Stepsies is like watching multiple volleys in a tennis match. Yum food so far.

Windsong

Yeah, the food looked nice, at least. So the teams actually got fed tonight, which was nice.

I am looking forward to tomorrow night with Dee. I kind of hope they end up winning the competition, so her husband can use his share of the prize money to fund a good divorce lawyer. Oh that’s right, she’d never let him use any of the money. Oh well.

brain dead dave

It can’t be denied ….the food was nice….but so was Rolf Harris,people thought.

Still, it was served by two of the most soulless, beige individuals on the face of the earth. One of them was in tears, that never works for me. I fairly drowned in the avalanche of American sitcom cliches these blokes were gibbering….speaking of cultural diversity..

In spite of the food success, the steely determination that those gice showed to touch as many pieces of food as possible with their hands was a feature of the evening. I can’t understand how folks get bent out of shape about a hair in their food, when mindlessly mauling the food is just a given on these shows. Put some tongs in those complimentary knife sites ffs ,producers.

Chops’ shirt was just unacceptable, going from a fish out of water suit failure one night to a Salvation Army thrift shop choice. The hideous chops are curling under his chin like a helmet strap. Distracting.

brain dead dave

der, I meant knife “sets”

Liberty

Thanks Juz – great recap, as always!

Littlepetal

Love your recap, Juz!!!

Maz

According to the local paper, the instant restaurant was held at Chris’s place (not a rental for the show) http://www.theherald.com.au/story/3736980/newcastle-mates-plate-up-on-mkr/

Littlepetal

Finally we have a dietician cooking some delicious food and not preaching about low fat diet.

Once I when to a dietician and she can’t fault my 3 days recording of my food intake except…….. I have to cut down on my eggs. I should reduce the eggs to 1 or max 2 per week. Sorry, I didn’t follow her advice.

Sara

Eggs are good for you, Littlepetal! I always wonder why dessert forks are never put on the table with spoons, it would be so much easier to eat messy food with a spoon and a fork, rather than using a finger to push food onto the spoon!!

Littlepetal

I love eggs.

HeWhoHasNoName

Seems to me that the producers may have had a word about strategic bs scoring (ahem Lauren) as after all although the show does like a bit of spice, at it’s core the majority of people do watch it primarily for the cooking and as such seeing better cooks being eliminated due to strategy could see viewers walk away.

Good on this series version of “the dads”, alas I already see weakness in them which will ultimately be their downfall as blubbering already over a good dish, after a few more weeks of pressure and things going bad….

Hoping today that Dee’s puppet walks out on her.

Gabby

I liked the look of the three courses last night and could have happily have tucked in. I think the guys did a great job. Poor old Cookie nearly came undone and I really thought his pork was going to be overdone but he did well to get most of it just right.
I think they were fairly scored last night. I feel if they can keep their cool they may do better than Father and Son who’s specialty appears that it may be Asian. I will not miss Dad’s jokes. I think it’s time he gave them a rest.

I feel the Step-mum and ‘duaghty’ from the night before, if anything were marked too high. They annoy the crap out of me, sorry.
So does Lauren and Carmine and I am sick to death of their back to back bitching with each other.

Littlepetal

Hazel voice is getting to me. Thank God I am not in her exercises classes!! Does she has a Kiwi accent?

HeWhoHasNoName

I’m beginning to think that maybe Hazel was once a Henry… big hands and bone structure.

Littlepetal

The promo only showed the raw mains. Nothing about the Entrée and Dessert.

Dee is loud but harmless. Lauren and Carmine just behaved like they a lot about food but my guess is they have producers telling them what to say.

HeWhoHasNoName

Dee may appear harmless but I bet the smackdown’s her husband will be/has received from her and now aired on national tv hasn’t done him much world of good.

Littlepetal

No. No one is feeling sorry for him. Tim should run a mile.

brain dead dave

Shoulda gone to Specsavers .,Tim.

Littlepetal

I think Specsavers can’t help him. He needs an eye surgeon