‘Ruthless’ Nadia gets the knives out

NADIA Lim has been cultivating a gentle, woman-of-the-people sort of image over the years since her first seeds of stardom were sown on MasterChef in 2011 – but it’s a rather more cut-throat version of the 27-year-old that’s about to be unleashed on her TV audience this week.

Starring Lim and husband Carlos Bagrie, pictured, Nadia’s Farm follows the couple’s efforts (complete with plenty of highs and lows) to convert a 135-year-old, 485-hectare Central Otago sheep and barley farm into the region’s top food producer. The reality TV show debuts on Three on Wednesday at 8.40pm.

In a teaser review of the show, reviewer James Croot reckons Lim’s ‘‘ruthless’’ side is very much to the fore. ‘‘Faced with infighting amongst her small home chicken flock, she dispatches her ‘chicken wrangler’ to do the necessarily culling,’’ he writes.

‘‘Tears are initially spilled, but it’s clear emotions are actually mixed, as she admits, ‘It’s sad to see him go, but I’m kind of looking forward to coq au vin’.

‘‘Likewise, we’re informed that a wild boar who dared cross her by getting into the crops, ended up as pancetta.’’