Those My Kitchen Rules’ cooking disasters? It’s a set-up
Even though we’re weeks in, we’ve only just begun what is always a long, drawn-out and dramatic ninth season of Channel Seven’s cooking show My Kitchen Rules. But once again it seems like the contestants are stuffing up the simplest of dishes.
“Isn’t this meant to be a cooking show?” many have wondered aloud while watching the slow-motion car crash that inevitably leads to judges Manu and Pete’s grimacing faces and the other contestants’ full-blown criticisms.
The gigantic fails in the kitchen have been a ratings bonanza for Seven, with about 1.5 million people tuning in across Australia to watch people’s cooking dreams get smashed to pieces.
But if you think the show has strayed from its original purpose – which is not entirely unwarranted criticism, mind you – it’s important not to be fooled either. The contestants can cook, but as is the way of reality TV, they’re to an extent set up to fail.
If it seems incredibly strange how contestants struggle to use appliances in their own kitchens, it’s because it was supplied by a sponsor and they’ve never used it before – and they’re not given the time to test the gadgets out either.
"You get a whole pack of stuff dropped on your doorstep, so if you haven't practised using it you're like, shit, how does this equipment work?" one former MKR contestant told Fairfax Media. "You're not allowed to use certain equipment you own or the products you're used to."
And then to make things ever harder for the contestants – and better for viewers – the competitors have to submit countless recipes to be part of the show. And they only know which recipes they’re cooking right before their instant restaurant.
"That's the hard thing," the former contestant said. "You can't know all your recipes inside-out [because there are so many]. They'll call you the night before you're due to cook and tell you what your menu is."