Meet Janelle and Monzir: MKR’s secret loved up couple
Sassy baker Janelle, 27, and partner Monzir, 26, say they have what it takes to claim the MKR champion title when Australia’s favourite cooking show returns to Channel 7 and 7plus after the Commonwealth Games.
With solid teamwork and a winning menu that draws on their blended Turkish/Cypriot and Sudanese heritage, winning the competition would be the icing on the cake for this loved-up couple.
A dab hand on the BBQ, Monzir loves full-flavoured spice rubs and cooking over coals with his two special ingredients: chilli and peanut butter.
Dubbed by friends the “Kardashian of cakes”, Janelle runs a successful cake decorating business, has a fine eye for detail and prides herself on presentation.
This perfect pairing is set to bring sugar and spice to the MKR table, but when judge Manu Feildel asks who is the boss of the kitchen, the couple has very different opinions.
“Oh, me,” says Janelle with a confident, almost smug smile; before Monzir cheekily corrects her, saying: “In the kitchen, not in life!”
What will happen when the queen of cake meets the queen of the kitchen, judge Nigella Lawson? Janelle is feeling the pressure, “Everyone is expecting me to make great cakes. I’m going to be sharing my chocolate mud cake with Nigella,” she says. “What if no one likes it and I’m just delusional?”
It’s not just the chocolate mud cake weighing on Janelle’s mind, who admits the couple haven’t yet announced their relationship to their families, “We didn’t actually tell our families that we were dating before coming on MKR,” confesses Janelle. “We just decided to go on TV and announce it to everybody!”
The love is back. MKR is back. Join Nigella Lawson and Manu Feildel as they travel the country to uncover Australia’s best home cooks.
MKR is produced by ITV Studios Australia for the Seven Network.
Meet Kate and Mary: MKR’s self-confessed high achievers
Queensland friends Kate, 38, and Mary, 57, like the finer things in life and expect nothing but the best: two key ingredients their competitors will learn very fast when Australia’s favourite cooking show, MKR, returns to Channel 7 and 7plus after the Commonwealth Games.
The bubbly health care workers love to host dinner parties and long lunches, bringing people together through food. They have an immense passion for cooking with high-end, premium ingredients and favour a simple, no-fuss approach to their cooking.
Kate and Mary don’t believe in wasting time on bad food or being timid with constructive criticism. If a dish can be made better, they will say so.
Self-confessed food snob Kate shares: “By nature we are high achievers; that’s how our friendship formed.”
Mary adds, “If I don’t like someone’s food, I won’t be able to hide it. I’m absolutely gagging for some high-intensity cooking and the chance to critique some of my fellow contestants’ dishes.”
The pair brand a fellow team’s dish “inedible”, but Kate and Mary will face their own crunch time when they struggle to perfect a crispy skin in their seafood main. Have the confident friends set the bar too high?
The love is back. MKR is back. Join Nigella Lawson and Manu Feildel as they travel the country to uncover Australia’s best home cooks.
Wonder if Seven genuinely have a ‘Plan B’ if this spectacularly flops? I’d imagine they don’t really, hoping it’ll be some sort of ‘show of 2022’ and with the heritage brand’s loyal following and Comm Games promotion, not to mention all the promotion already, even they have a broad target/eatimates of say 500k metro (which we keep hearing is the new ‘hit’) and 1m metro which Voice achieved after Tokyo last year.
But surely, at the back of some Seven bosses’ minds, they have to also be worried/thinking of a potential nuclear code red disaster with the show, citing from its final plagued years against Married wirh too much manufactured/non-cooking drama, negative energy, fighting, distasteful behaviour, Pete Evans saga, etc?
And then there’s The Block (which started soft last year) but which has been, like MasterChef, much more of a mainstayer/longevity performer and whatever 10 air, as well as the ABC.
Margaret River husband and wife team, Ashlee, 36, and Mat, 39, are seasoned cooks, but their risky choice of serving a Marron Bisque entrée may spell disaster for the pair when Australia’s favourite cooking show, MKR, returns to Channel 7 and 7plus after The Commonwealth Games.
Unbeknown to the foodie parents, bisque is the first sauce judge Manu Feildel was taught to cook, and even he concedes it can be “tricky” to get right.
“It’s probably one of the most favourite things I like to cook,” says Manu, before warning the team to ensure their entrée is “top notch.”
Manu’s bisque bomb immediately makes Ashlee panic as the team retreats to the kitchen. “I’m really freaking out that we’ve made a huge mistake.” Adds Mat, “why did we choose bisque!”
Cooking is everything for the couple of 18 years, and competing on MKR has been a long-held dream. Will the couple’s dream be realised by a winning bisque, or will it burn right in front of their eyes?
The love is back. MKR is back. Join Nigella Lawson and Manu Feildel as they travel the country to uncover Australia’s best home cooks.
MKR is produced by ITV Studios Australia for the Seven Network.
Big Brother was only rating around 300k and they aired the entire season. I don’t think this will do that bad. It won’t be like the old days but it will probably do well enough.
Crazy think it was not long ago that Celebrity Spash was taken off air after it premiered to a disastrous 1.3mil, and branded the flop of the year. And the season was only 5 episodes.
MKR premieres 7.00pm, Sunday 7 August on Channel 7 and7plus
Share the love when Australia’s favourite cooking show, MKR, returns with Nigella Lawson and Manu Feildel for an exciting new season starting 7.00pm Sunday, 7 August on Channel 7 and 7plus.
It’s state versus state as the beloved competition gets back to its original, winning recipe: real people cooking real food in their own homes, serving treasured family recipes and love on a plate to the judges and their fellow contestants.
Each team will bring their A-game as they compete to win the coveted MKR crown, moving one step closer to realising their lifelong food dreams. Which team will impress the judges, score big with fellow contestants and triumph in the heat of the kitchen?
“We want to be on top of the leader board with a little fist pump, not like a big one,” says team Queensland’s fine diner, Kate.
Take a seat at the MKR table for a new era of velvety, juicy, spicy and deep-fried delights with a seal of approval from the queen of the kitchen, Nigella: “Deep fried. Those are words I always want to hear!”
MKR is produced by ITV Studios Australia for the Seven Network.
Surprised to see it start on Sunday that according to their guides still is Commonwealth Games coverage. Mustn’t want to give The Block and Masked Singer a head start.
The Australian’s Media Diary reports that Nigella Lawson will appear for less than half of the 16 episodes of the rebooted My Kitchen Rules, meaning she only appears for the first round of the show. For the second round of heats, Matt Preston joins Manu.
However, Colin Fassnidge and Curtis Stone were drafted in to adjudicate the show’s finals after Manu apparently come down with the flu and had to go to hospital.
Also, the show’s signature red colouring and the “ding dong” doorbell at the contestant’s house have both reportedly been ditched.
