MKR’s two-ingredient recipe: Chalk and cheese
Before you serve your food to someone else, make sure you taste it . . . if you like it, they like it.
Manu Feildel
My Kitchen Rules NZ is returning for another fiery season but judges Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge are just happy to be back in the kitchen together.
“We’re good mates,” they tell the
Weekend Herald.
Sitting side by side in a cafe for an early morning coffee, the two look like they have been mates since the beginning of time, but it turns out things weren’t always so chummy.
“We actually didn’t like each other,” Fassnidge says before Feildel quickly interrupts.
“No, no,” the French-born chef says with a hint of humour, “you didn’t like me.”
“Anyway,” Fassnidge says, “we started MKR and I was like what’s
MKR? So I got hired and I’m like ‘Oh, that’s that French t***’.”
Despite the “awkward” start to their friendship, Feildel says on the last day of filming, the Irish Australian chef knocked on his door and apologised for past behaviour and now, their friendship is full of deep respect for each other.
Before things get too heartwarming, though, the celebrity chefs change the subject and recall their funnier antics, such as the time Fassnidge squirted tomato sauce into Feildel’s ear. Or the time Feildel threw his co-star’s phone out the window of a moving car.
“We’re like big kids,” Fassnidge says.
But those big kids have become household favourites, with TVNZ announcing at their Thursday night showcase that My Kitchen Rules New Zealand is coming back for 2023, with $100,000 up for grabs.
The show is currently in casting stages, which will see five teams of passionate home cooks competing under the watchful gaze of the renowned restaurateurs.
And if you’re thinking of applying, the chefs share a little insight into what they’re looking for in next year’s cast.
“We don’t want nasty,” Fassnidge says. “Years ago, MKR got a bit nasty in Australia and we said we want to knock that out, we don’t want that anymore. We want to see people do well.”
It’s something Fassnidge may not have wanted once upon a time as he admits he used to be one of those chefs people tried to avoid.
“I was a hard chef,” he says. “I took over a sh***y pub, I got like two hats in a pub, which was never done in Australia before, so then to maintain that level was high pressure.”
But the 48-year-old admits everything changed when his eldest daughter was born.
“I spent less time cooking and the restaurant actually did better when I wasn’t there. My attitude changed.”
He might be more laidback now, and Feildel may still be the “nice” chef, but it doesn’t mean the two don’t still have cooking standards.
“When people overcook a piece of fish it’s just not edible,” Feildel says. “Before you serve your food to someone else, make sure you taste it. Because if you like it, they like it.”
Despite enjoying some of the world’s finest dining, the pair also have their own guilty pleasures including two-minute noodles and even McDonald’s.
“I have two buckets of magic noodles — the chicken, and then I put parmesan in,” Fassnidge says, moving his hands around as if mentally recreating the fancy take
on instant noodles. “I put a splash of vinegar and sesame oil.”
Meanwhile, Feildel opts for McDonald’s chicken nuggets — with sweet ‘n’ sour sauce.
And while Maccas and instant noodles might be better placed on TVNZ’s Snack Masters, the duo are excited to be reuniting with Kiwi chefs and aren’t opposed to a cheeky after-comp beverage.
“The way the Kiwis do it is pretty boom, boom, boom then let’s go, let’s go out for a beer,” Fassnidge says. “The Kiwi crew is a great crew.”
Applications are open now for My Kitchen Rules 2023.