A FRESH TAKE ON RECIPE
Nigella Lawson tells Siobhan Duck why she’s excited to join the revamped My Kitchen Rules
THERE was a time during the Covid-19 pandemic’s harshest border closures that Nigella Lawson feared she may never get to see Australia again. After all, the queen of British cooking shows, dubbed the “Domestic Goddess” ever since the phrase appeared in the title of her second cookbook, speaks with clear fondness about the many trips she has made to our shores over the past 24 years.
So when the Seven Network offered Lawson the chance to join Manu Feildel as a judge on their long-running series My Kitchen Rules, she couldn’t wait to pack her bags and head Down Under.
“I missed it terribly, so being there for MKR felt like a blossoming of life,” Lawson says.
“I just feel so at home in Australia, and, at the same time, its beauty fills me with a sense of wonderment. Being in Australia feels like essential nourishment to me – speaking of which, I do have to say that one of the great joys of being in Australia for me is the fabulous food you have.”
Lawson replaces controversial chef Pete Evans, who had been Feildel’s co-host for 11 seasons, in a reboot that spotlights what contestants put on the plate rather than what they dish out in explosive arguments and salacious scandals.
“I can assure you that there’s nothing confected in MKR,” Lawson insists. “You just have to let it all unfold, however that may be. I absolutely agree with MKR’s decision to bring the focus back to the food, and that’s what made me so want to do it. But the contestants are humans, not automatons, so on occasion, of course, emotions will run high.”
Because she eschews scripts and prefers to just “talk away spontaneously” for the camera, Lawson says shooting MKR is akin to filming one of her own shows aside from being surrounded by a far bigger cast and crew.
“What was so very special about MKR is the sense of friends around the table, and it really does feel like that,” she says. “And I think it’s that camaraderie, the feeling of all being part of a joint enterprise which comes out of a shared love of food, that is at the heart of MKR.”
MY KITCHEN RULES
7PM, SUNDAY, SEVEN