MKR’s taste of truffle duo

It’s been a whirlwind few months for Tasmanian MKR contestants Anna and Henry Terry, Karolin McGregor reports on what it’s like to suddenly be in the national spotlight

FOR country kids Anna and Henry Terry the journey from truffle farmers to reality television stars has been a pretty steep learning curve.

The siblings live on their family’s truffle farm near Deloraine and are contestants in the latest season of popular cooking show My Kitchen Rules.

Henry made a brief appearance in last year’s show and it was after that the pair decided to give it a go this time around.

“We thought it was something that’s so far out of our comfort zone, so we thought why not,” he said.

“It would be good for us and we thought it’s something we could do as a team and have a lot of fun hopefully.” While they have always enjoyed working with food, the pair said cooking on national television was fairly daunting. “No, we’re not budding chefs at all, we were just simple cooks,” Anna said. “We’ve always eaten hearty foods, just meat and veg and that sort of thing and that’s what we love to eat as well. We didn’t have a huge food knowledge or any special skills in the kitchen, so when we realised we were on the show we thought all right, we’d better try to learn a few things here and cram study a little bit.” The pair first appeared on the show in this week’s episodes and were the first team in round two of the competition to cook. Before they took part, Henry said they had no idea just how many people it takes to make the show happen. “By the time you get all the crew and everyone here there’s probably about 100 people and they had a big marquee and catering, so it’s full on,” he said. “It’s huge in all sorts of ways, it tests you and your cooking abilities, so we had to learn a lot in that respect. And outside of that as well just dealing with having cameras in the house and nationally recognised chefs judging your food, it’s quite an adrenaline rush and you’re forced to learn very quickly.”

Filming the show takes place over several months and Anna said the whole journey was mentally and physically testing.

“Just being involved in such a huge thing and putting yourself out there,” she said.

“I don’t think we expected it to be just as enormous as it was. Just the whole experience, in your head you’re thinking OK, there will be people coming to the house and we’ll be cooking for Pete and Manu and then it happens and the crew are here and there’s no getting out of it, you just have to do it.”

The Terrys were the first farmers in the country to produce black truffles and harvested their first one about two decades ago. TRUFFLES

were a key ingredient in the first dishes Henry and Anna cooked on the show and they earned high praise from the judges and fellow contestants.

“It was nice to be able to use what we’ve grown up with and what we love,” Anna said.

“It’s very special to us and our family and it was nice to be able to serve that and have it well received, it was better than we could have ever hoped for.”

There are plenty of big personalities among the contestants this year and the Terrys said that is all part of the fun.

“Henry and I just sort of sat back and enjoyed watching it all unravel,” Anna said.

“We got along really well with all the teams though and made some really gold friend-

Just being involved in such a huge thing and putting yourself out there ... I don’t think we expected it to be just as enormous as it was ANNA TERRY

ships and people we’ll stay in contact with for the rest of our lives.”

Cooking under pressure can be a challenge, but the pair said their main aim was just to have fun.

“In those situations you go one way or the other and Anna and I just decided we were going to have a great time and whatever happened we were just going to enjoy it,” Henry said.

“It’s only something that’s going to happen once, so we just made the most of every second and had a ball.”

Now the pair are back on the farm and the summer truffle harvest is under way.

They are the only ones in the country producing summer truffles, which Henry said have a slightly milder flavour and different texture to the traditional winter varieties.

Most of their fresh truffles are sold locally to restaurants or at farmers’ markets.