MKR episode 2 recap

Alex & Gareth (QLD)Alex & Gareth (QLD)
Anna & Jordan (WA)Anna & Jordan (WA)
Cheryl & Matt (QLD)Cheryl & Matt (QLD)
Gianni & Zana (VIC)Gianni & Zana (VIC)
Jessica & Marcos (VIC)Jessica & Marcos (VIC)
JP & Nelly (QLD)JP & Nelly (QLD)
Luciano & Martino (NSW)Luciano & Martino (NSW)
Mitch & Laura (VIC)Mitch & Laura (VIC)
Monique & Sarah (NSW)Monique & Sarah (NSW)
Nev & Kell (WA)Nev & Kell (WA)
Rosie & Paige (SA)Rosie & Paige (SA)
Tasia & Gracia (VIC)Tasia & Gracia (VIC)

It’s Tuesday night and time for the second, hopefully more impressive, round of MKR.

It’s the Curly Wurlies and the establishment shots will make everyone want to visit Mornington Peninsula in Vic. Gorgeous. Wikipedia says their home town of Shoreham only has 400-odd people.

Being farm kids they are big fans of nose-to-tail eating so let’s hope they serve up some offal. Who’s most likely to declare they don’t eat offal …  There has to be one.

Entree: Smoked venison

Main: Roasted Wild Boar

Dessert:  Black Forest Mousse Cake

They are smart not to list every ingredient of the dish on the menu, as teams are always marked down for leaving off elements. Uh oh, the butcher does not have the right cut of boar and we know Coles will be no help.

Back home and the clock is already ticking. Love the nature-themed decorations after last night’s cop kitsch.

Curly Sue is only 18 but she is smart appointing herself head chef AND both have tied back their hair – hooray.

They churn their ice cream first, which is smart. Their dessert sounds fabulous – chocolate and cherry are a match made in heaven. It’s time to get changed and they don’t seem to have prepped entree or dessert.

Here are the guests – please tell me Zana (Lippy Chick) is going to stack it in a puddle in her white dress. Darn it – she’s makes it. Cops Monique and Sarah have to play catch up getting to know the others. Lawyer Zana continues her fine form of last night with: “Every police officer I deal with is horrific.” Yeah, smart move when they’ve yet to score your food, Zana.

Entree is actually smoked venison, roasted beetroot, blackberries, mushrooms and a mustard mousse. These kids have been watching modern English cooking shows. It’s no goat’s cheese tart. The venison looks to be different sizes which could prove tricky, as it’s a quick-cooking meat.

Ding dong – judges! Curly Sue tries not to fangirl over Manu this time.

While the guests are peckish they refrain from nibbling on the termites that crawl out of their mossy placements. Zana’s face is, yet again, priceless. Plus One is definitely the spider killer of the couple.

Urgh ... food made by uni students.

Urgh … food made by uni students.

Rosie and Paige from SA again prove they are the queens of the confessional, coming up with the one liners. Paige bets Manu $10 there will be smoky theatrics with the entree and we know from the ads she’s right.

Oh no – the venison is way over. It’s going to be tough. Their plating is so pretty, even before the cloches filled with smoke go on. Will the smoke impart enough flavour, though?

The judges are chewing, chewing when poor Curly Sue realises she forgot the jus. Never forget the sauce, Curly Sue! When the ads are over I just know Manu will look at her with his sad French eyes.


Here we go … Manu loves the theatrics of it all BUT he misses the jus and the meat is not rare. Pete gives them props for having a real crack at it.

Roasted boar with sauteed carrots, duck fat potatoes, celeriac puree, cranberry sauce and a red wine reduction. It’s a really autumnal-sounding dish and – hooray – a team is doing a decent serve of vegies.

Zana doesn’t like pig, just because. This could be the first of many things Zana doesn’t like, followed closely by No. 2 “keeping her trap shut”.

Curly Sue left the boar in the pan too long but thinks she got away with it. Because it’s the wrong cut they have to pan sear instead of roasting it as described on their pared-back menu. So next time their menu will just read: Meat. More Meat. Sweets.

Even though they ditch their gross-tasting jus the plate looks lovely. Pete gives them a mild roasting over their meat but is still delighted by the dish, despite not liking the cranberry sauce. Manu is pro-sauce but also wants a jus. He has high hopes for their future dishes.

Zana likes the boar – ehrmagerd!

Dessert time and Curly Sue shows off her chocolate tempering skills – nice and glossy.

Cougar Town ensures the others have room for dessert by making them do a little vom-vom in their mouths with descriptions and actions of her kissing style.

Surfer Mitch is packing  it that he has to flip the mousse cake but he does well. Again their plating works well but they have to have to plop melting ice cream on to each plate. Did they leave it under the camera lights for too long? Just call it a chocolate sauce, kids.

You can tell Manu is happy with the chocolate crack ( a noise up there with pork crackle crunch and creme brulee crack). Pete says the mousse cake was perfect but that the ice cream, molten or not, was unnecessary. However, Manu says it was all good, and he’s “sin a lot”. Sadly the barns have been set tonight, not razed. The others love the dessert so, strangely, Zana says it left a bad taste in her mouth.

Scores are Paige and Rosie 9; Mum and Son 9; Zana and Plus One 8; Cougar Town, 8; Cops 7. Total 41/50.

Good to see fair scoring – they were so much more ambitious than the cops.

Judges’ scores: Entree Manu 6, Pete 7; Main Manu 8, Pete 8; Dessert Manu 10, Pete 9.

Curly Sue AKA Laura and her bro are stoked to get the first 10 of the comp, making a total of 89. They are easily safe.

Next time it’s Cougar Town, whose names are Cheryl and Matt and it looks like it is going to be a trainwreck, so  good  viewing.

 

 



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33 Comments

  1. I was surprised the cops gave the lowest score and credit where it’s due Zana & Pinocchio are fair with their scoring so far.

    Great recap Juz thanks

  2. I will say, Zana and whatshisface have been fair in their scoring. I just wish their personalities were as pleasant. Rosie and Paige continue to be my favourite people *ever*. Cheryl, meanwhile, continues to be the queen of revealing far too much information.

    I definitely think that Curly Sue would be the more forward of the two siblings. I can’t remember the brother speaking more than three words in two hours. I liked the effort they put in, even if the end result fell short a couple of times. Their restaurant was *spectacular*, though (particularly after the as-subtle-as-being-tasered police-theme from last night). It looked amazing.

    Finally, Jordan in a bow-tie. Swoon.

    • I am left wondering if the bro can actually cook as I am not sure what he did. Presumably he prepped the veg. They could come unstuck in later rounds when cooking for the public if that’s the case.

    • I just saw Gionni and Zana on Sunrise and minus make up and not playing a role they sounded and looked quite nice and normal. Apparently the money comments were mentioned for a reason we will see down the track???

  3. At first I thought the cops were too harsh and perhaps an 8 would have been fairer but I think the 9s were generous. All courses looked lovely but the entree was overcooked and no jus, the main was different than the menu, no jus and cranberry sauce that wasn’t to some people’s palate (sorry but I had to) but the dessert was fab. I think they scored well because of the plating.
    Jordan reminds me of a big enthusiastic (but endearing) puppy.
    I really wish I could unsee the kissing lesson.

  4. I made it tonight. I liked tonight’s contestants…and who wouldn’t? They were nice and natural.

    But sorry, I wouldn’t give a perfect score to melted ice cream. At least Manu finally got his jus.

    • I agree about a lower score for melted icecream but as it wasn’t on the menu who’s to say it wasn’t a cold sauce. How would they know 😛

  5. Was that termites on the table or did they cross MKR with IAC and serve maggots. Pretty sure the health inspectors wouldn’t approve.

  6. Thank you, curly kids, for keeping the menu description simple. It is a pet hate of mine for the menu to describe every ingredient on the plate.

  7. Thanks for the recap Juz, my recorder missed the judges scoring. Great meals from the Curly Wurlies.
    I know I’ll get annoyed when strategic scoring starts, which it already has with the cops dishing a 7. But Pete and Manu’s scores count for much more than the strategic votes do so I’ll be ok.

    • It will be interesting to see the cops follow up scores. They seemed happy with their 7 (and didn’t act like they were being strategic imo), maybe they are just going to be consistently low scorers. The test will be after they are no longer on the bottom.

  8. I liked the Curly kids. Although did the bro actually cook anything? Seemed to be mostly her… I was seriously impressed with her chocolate-tempering skills. That is HARD to get right, I reckon Manu’s 10 was for that alone.

    I live down the road from Shoreham…. had a good laugh at poor Curly Bro with his surfboard in flat, calf-deep water, which is most of this side of the Peninsula. Yet they had them posing outside bathing boxes on the other side, where there IS good surf.

    However I was impressed with their (minimal) shots of Coles in Hastings. It’s not exactly a flagship store (which is why we barely saw it) but they managed to clear off the gang of fundraising old ladies in wheelchairs that usually line up out the front in their football gear. They must’ve pushed them round the corner to get the shot. Sad I missed it.

    • welcome, Bel! Your comments will appear straight away from now on. I know when they filmed in SA a few seasons ago they made one team go to a Coles that was miles from their house because it was a brand new store that had a prettier fruit n veg section than usual.

    • Bel, we need your help seeing you live that way. Did you know the butchers that the curly ones went to? Do they always have wild boar and venison? I assume the butcher was in Hasting.

      • No I’m not sure about that butchers… it’s not in Hastings, if I had to bet I’d say Red Hill. There’re lots of small farmers around there supplying shops, you could get exotic game meats pretty easily provided you handed over your wallet & let them take what they like. The butcher in Balnarring (it wasn’t that one) often has venison, I’m sure he’d find you some boar for the right price 🙂

  9. I thought the Curly kids did a great job considering their age and their first night. I think they will be a force to be reckoned with down the track.
    It’s annoying me how they are all trying to out do each other in the funnies department.
    And don’t get me started on the Cougar, what was that teaching him to kiss all about? How embarrassing, I don’t know who she is making more of a fool of, herself or Matt?
    Really looking forward to their “wonderful experience” tonight.

    • Gabby saw them this morning with Larry&Kylie and she was doing it again. :mrgreen: I’ll have nightmares for years after that double dose of creepiness.

  10. As much as I can’t help wanting to say what every thing amuses my mind, I definitely wouldn’t be doing those fish kissing lips at a dinner table of strangers, esp on TV.

    I am not buying into the formulaic villain couple. I just think editing always has a lot to do with that.

  11. How many butcher shops sell wild boar without even a special order. Given they have to give producers a heap of recipes and only find out at 6am on the day of your restaurant, how do you know you can get items such as boar and venison.

  12. Yes they’ve been picked by the producers to be the villains and therefore are going to be edited accordingly, but think about the things Zana has actually said (as distinct from the facial expresions).
    $250 000 isn’t a lot of money to us
    We don’t eat at our friends houses so we don’t get food poisoning
    Every cop I’ve met in court is horrific (to cops on first meeting them)

    So maybe she’s not villainous but certainly does seem to lack some social skills.

  13. I don’t think Zana is a big time lawyer. Parents must be well off to have her behave in this way.

    Also I am sure they can pick teams wirh better cooking abilities. Look like cougar was picked so we can all have fun

  14. Hi all…. I posted a few comments on Realty Ravings. I love reading everybody’s comments on here….. gives me a real chuckle!! Nice to see the old gang back in action.
    I couldn’t help but notice that Po face and Puk face (Zana and Gianni say they are from Melbourne (spose sounds oh so trendier), but when you look at the “lawyer’s” offices they came from in Queensland…. she must have been absolutely mortified….. wonder whether she snuck in the back entrance, so she wouldn’t be seen. Grasso, Searles Romano
    322 Old Cleveland Rd, Brisbane, Queensland. Check out street view on maps and you’ll see what I mean – ha ha ha ha

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