77 Comments

  1. The producers also set them to fail. I don’t think they are cooking in their own home. They used an old house with a tiny free standing stove. You can’t even cook a 3 course meal for 4. Now they have to cook for 16

  2. I’m finding it really hard to sit through the episode, to be honest.

    The whole thing just screams of a set-up. This is viewer manipulation, and not even particularly transparent manipulation.

    The two boys were asked to be on the show when the producers found their instagram accounts. Neither of them even knew the show existed before this. They’re not cooks. They’ve got zero clue about food. Listening to them talking to the camera in the kitchen, or even hearing them chatting while they were in Coles shopping … and they’ve got no idea what they’re doing.

    Adding insult to injury, they’re in this crappy little house (that looks like it’s literally falling apart), the kitchen is tiny and ancient and filthy. Their restaurant actually looks like somewhere a serial killer would lure victims. It’s just a set-up.

    I’m not taking any pleasure in their humiliation. They were set up to be the obnoxious team who fails. And so they’re failing. Shrug.

    Given how socially immature the two boys are (and I absolutely feel like Austin would fit somewhere on the autism spectrum. He just seems so detached from everything happening around him), this almost feels … predatory on channel 7’s behalf.

    • I agree that it is a set-up but I’m finding it hard to feel sympathy for them. They’ve been such prats and have been so incredibly ruse and obnoxious. Sure, editing no doubt played a part – but they said some awful things.

      • I don’t know. For me, it’s the fact that the boys were cast just to say awful things. If I can see the puppet strings, then I can see the puppets.

        • I agree with you Wingsong. Its such a manipulation by the producers. They have never said they can cook but the producers still want them on the show. They were told that they will help and advice them along the way, but they didn’t.
          Just making them cook in that tiny kitchen and small stove is not right.

          • Just being in the audience is intensely unpleasant, but not in the way that 7 thinks. I can’t help but feel, as vile as the two brothers have been (and it’s not like there haven’t been worse people on this show. The Jordanian girls threatened to stalk and assault people. The Seafood King namecalling, etc) … they’re just as much victims as everybody else is.

          • Agree with all the comments. They were definitely set up to fail badly. They don’t know how to cook, don’t know how to set up their prep time so the courses are completed in a timely manner and the producers stick them in that horrible kitchen with a teeny tiny oven. I don’t like either of them but they should have at least been in a decent kitchen like everyone else.
            Also if the producers choose the menus then the lollipop chicken choice was cruel since they had to french all of them and they really didn’t know what they were doing but then they didn’t know what they were doing when it came to most everything. There were 2 barbecues outside. They should have just made barbecued chicken, no lollipopping, but then they probably had no choice.

    • I’m actually very upset watching this. I have tears. They are really two youmg guys who are being exploited. And Manu and Pete would have known the setup and are showing not the slighest bit of empathy to at least imply some encouragement. I feel terrible for watching this and feel I owe those kids an apology.
      Lemon curd is one of my favourites so I hope they pulled it off.

  3. So when Josh heads outside, feeling nauseous and having a mild breakdown, the show thoughtfully plays, “Under pressure” over the footage.

    Stay classy, 7.

  4. 4 and a half hours between an already-late entree and main?

    I’d imagine they’re finally eating dinner close to midnight.

    Geez.

    • With the time it took to cook the damn things (and they still wound up under-cooked), anything could’ve happened. Hell, they might’ve needed to go to Bunnings and get a whole other barbecue. The dinner was actually served the night after, but everyone was so delirious from hunger, nobody noticed 24 hours of time passing. Someone got hungry and probably tried to eat Manu’s hair.

  5. I thought the timing for the ad for new applicants for the next MKR was classic. Manu asking if you were inspired by tonight’s episode just after the cooking was labelled an epic fail.

  6. My opinion of Mr & Mrs Pink took a bit of a nose dive tonight. Some of their comments, especially about the lemon domes, were obviously a reflection of their own position on the leader board. To be honest I think they were lucky to be above Ian and BBs – I would have scored them lower..

  7. Tonight the brothers said they were home-schooled in foreign countries. That doesn’t mean they never went to regular schools, unless I missed that somewhere. Wherever they got their educations, they weren’t taught when to use me and when to use I.

    “I think we need clams for clam chowder.” Yep, good start, dickhead.

    I missed most of Gogglebox the other night, so that on 11 will be my safe place tonight.

    • Goggle is not quite the same without Wayne and Tom and of course the Celeb girls. I actually liked the bunker theme but I love sci fi. The more obnoxious brother has obviously cooked a little but the long-haired one strikes me as a guy who lives off two-minute noodles

  8. I saw that Josh’s teenage drug use was in the news. He was taking a photo of himself holding a bong.
    It made me giggle during tonight’s episode when he was talking about how he has always loved baking. Getting baked too it seems

    • What amounts to essentially smoking a joint in college (although, to be fair, I never did any of that) seems underwhelming for a “drug scandal”.

    • Yeah but the two different uses of the word baked I felt he was also having a laugh about it during the episode.
      Maybe I was just to baked myself and laughing at my own jokes.

    • He has changed his surname on Facebook now and tightened up his privacy settings – smart boy. However if you search for his brother, his page is public and complete strangers are making comments on it!! I don’t particularly like the boys, but going onto their FB page to leave insulting comments is really low.

      • Is that the wedding finger? I never remember.
        Maybe he got married as a late teenager for a Centrelink payment?remember a lot of kids at uni talking about that.
        Or maybe he is married, true love,blah blah they just don’t talk about it

        • That’s probably it Von. I haven’t noticed if he’s still wearing it.
          Jazzman Christians tend to marry young so they can have sex, Centrelink would just be an added bonus.

      • Gotta be somewhat unhygienic smoking a bong in a toilet, too. I hope the water therein didn’t come from a toilet bowl.

        I saw a bloke drink dirty bong water one night….the lot…..for a paltry ten bucks. Better than a tucker trial for entertainment. A converted Vegemite jar w/ garden hose. True blue.

  9. Hands up who thought last night was the worst episode of MKR ever! My hands, legs, tongue, hair and anything else on my body that can raise itself is up!

    I’m completely just pi553d off at this season and how fast it has degraded into a sham of complete bs.

    Look I understand the need for some drama and the need to fuel some side stories to give the show a bit more meat so to speak. But this season has jumped the shark and is not going to recover.

    When the tossers at 7 specifically go and head hunt people for drama’s sake without actually factoring in whether or not they can also cook (which should be the priority) you turn a promising show into a laughing stock. I’m sure of the thousands of contestants who signed up.. there is a tosser like Josh who applied who can cook.

    Still angry even thinking about their menu and their capabilities…

    Josh – I’ve been baking since 12! I call BS!!! If you’ve made bread as much as he says… you’d know firstly you don’t need to buy 2 containers of instant yeast (each of 200g)… as to make 16 rolls you might only need around 10g. Secondly making 16 rolls should of been simple as generally a single batch for a home cook makes around 12 so the extra 33% quantity of dough needed would not have been too hard. Their dough from the start you could see was not hydrated enough and didn’t even prove properly!

    4.5 hours to make mash potato and chicken is just a WTF moment in all extremes…

    And then again to the baking prodigy who can’t make a proper pastry base for his domes…. again a baker of some experience (2 weeks at least) would see the pastry was way too underdone, thick and overworked.

    Whether it was the producers who put them in a kitchen with a crap oven, no appliances (using a fork to beat and whisk ingredients) is not known… but at least give them a fricken stand mixer!

    I think their score was generous and I think Pete and Manu were told just to boost their scoring up a bit.

    This years crop so far is the worst ever… the Peruvians still not impressed with… Restaurant boy and Friend look like they have capability but still not sure how un-experienced they really claim to be is in fact truth or fiction.

    The rest of the teams are also a bit meh!

    Hoping batch 2 can at least pull their fingers out!

    • Was surprised that there was no mixer. Maybe they don’t know how to use one. Oh wait….Josh has been baking since he was 12. LOL

    • I know exactly what you mean. The whole thing just made my skin crawl. It was a set-up. And for all the rubbish last year of the Jordanian girls actually getting into a brawl off-camera and then threatening the other teams on-camera, they haven’t learned a damn thing, have they?

      I wonder how culpable channel 7 would be, legally. Say someone does have a nervous breakdown after the show, or someone actually does assault or injure somebody. Channel 7 cast these people for their extreme personalities, but I wonder how quickly they’d duck the blame if those personalities actually reacted the way 7 wants them to. But it’s the same with 9 and MAFS. They deliberately cast unhinged, extreme personalities, so who’s fault will it be when somebody actually gets hurt?

      • It sounds as if the producers have squeezed ten year’s worth of shit into one season’s menu.

        Yes, Windsong, what if a deluded contestant or team suicides after hearing some thing like~
        ” Zis is ze worst panna cotta I ‘af tasted in ze ten year ‘istory of Ma Kitschen Rolls”?

        or

        “$orry, gice, you ‘af bin illuminated! Your MKR churney is over. Au revoir!”

        Who killed Cock Robin?

  10. That was actuallly unpleasant to watch last night. I get that the brothers have been vile and last night was their big comeuppance, but all it looked like was a bunch of adults making fun of 2 very immature, unworldly young men. I don’t like to pull the bullying card unnecessarily because not all disagreement is bullying, but the pile on behaviour from all the teams and the judges even came very close to it.
    The brothers do seem genuinely awful people though, maybe if I’d had to put up with their carry on at all the previous instant restaurants I’d do just the same as the other teams.

    • I just continue in my head see the editing and production team after the final review cut of the episode all high fiving each other!

      These reality show producers all cycle from one reality show to the next so their idea of reality is warped beyond the norm.

  11. This is the first time in 10 years that I officially refused to watch an episode. It isn’t a cooking show anymore. It is a show based on ridicule and bullying and manipulation of the contestants.

  12. I am very concerned about how this may impact these two. Producers just piled the pressure with the inadequate, unequal playing field. Never has a kitchen been so basic on MKR. The way Manu went off was ridiculous. Old, 3 hour green beans, experienced cook, with adequate kitchen and appliances, years ago didn’t get reamed that way.
    I’ve decided to check tonights ep and if the boys fail I’m done. If they succeed I’ll hang around to see what happens with them and what I need to include in my correspondence to C7. If they fail tonight I’m out for good.

    • They are getting screen time so I wonder if it is really bothering them all that much. They are wannabe actors. However, the entire episode was BS and even wannabe actors shouldn’t have had to go through that.
      Is that their home/family home? If so then the producers could have moved them to another home with a nice kitchen just like they have done with other contestants. I was totally shocked when I saw that kitchen.
      I would be surprised if they are eliminated tonight. The producers will want to keep them around. They are more controversial than Karito and Ian.

      • I do wonder if that is their home… either it’s the boys home (moved out of parents house).. hence why lack of cleanliness in the kitchen and also the mega crucifix!

  13. Has anyone noticed that Josh’s and Austin’s accents keep changing? Sometimes they sound sort of American, sometimes sort of Australian, sometimes English, etc. Is it because they have one Australian parent and one American parent, because they moved around a lot (different countries) or do they just need a better dialect coach?

  14. I totally agree with the ‘terrible episode’ and ‘manipulated by producers’ comments. However I differ with most of you when it comes to feeling sorry for Josh, he’s 25 years old for goodness sake, yes he might have been home schooled but he’s had 7 years to be out in the world – surely he’s had to have a job of some description or gone to Uni or generally had to be around other people. To me he’s a wannabe actor who agreed to say appalling things about other people just to raise his profile.
    On the other hand, I totally feel sorry for Austin, he is only 21 and still finding his way. Roped in by an older brother who he probably admires. He may be on the spectrum or he may just be socially awkward either way he probably had no idea of what he was in for.
    Having said all that I honestly can’t call to mind any of the names or faces of last years contestants (including the winners). I remember Henry and Anna from the year before (or was that last year?) and the guy I went to Uni with from a few seasons ago but really most contestants don’t stick in my mind.

    • It would’ve been the raw chicken.

      But that’s the thing. We know that contestants often get to pick someone else’s house to cook in. So channel 7 didn’t give the boys any other option for hosting their dinner party, other than a dorm room?

      Honestly, the more I found out about it, the more the whole thing just stinks.

  15. I don’t think it is their home. From Josh Instagram, he has a dog not a cat. Also the cupboard was very bare and empty and what was inside was placed nearly.

  16. A huge thankyou to all commentators here for reminding me why I stopped watching MKR, and reassuring me to never go back. Meals at midnight. Fake villains. Forgotten ingredients. Kitchen disasters. Stupid costumes designed to make the contestants look trite. And the contrived to camera comments. I think they were the worst part. So thankyou ttvers.

    • I planned to watch the ten year anniversary of culinary hocus pocus… but am in genuine awe of those who can stomach this every night. You gice must be learning a heap about cooking. Bon apetit.

      Love the comments everyone and thanks for taking the bullets of mediocrity for me. I’m copping plenty of collateral damage on MAFS. It’s all about virginity and calling your spouse a ******* ****.

    • I could not even fi ish the first episode this year. I have tuned out and just read the recaps. I cannot stomach all of that stuff. Same was with Yummy Mummies on Netflix. That woman and her mother from Adelaide were so awful, I could not watch even one episode.

      PS: If anyone wants to watch genuine nice and funny reality TV, try Making It with Nick Offerman and Amy Poehler. Their chemistry was so great in Parks and Rec and it works well in Making It. It is a bit like GBBO, but they craft or woodwork. It showcases real talent, no fake drama.

    • Nah, I like that he’s an AFL player (guys generally look pretty good, in those uniforms), but he didn’t do much for me.

      I gotta be honest, though. When the two cricketers were walking in, I was looking at the guy who would eventually reveal his nickname as “Hollywood” (because of his chiselled looks and good hair), and I caught myself thinking, “oh, hello there. You’re not bad.”

  17. I watched most of the first half hour but then only saw bits and pieces. I noticed that the kitchen was small, I didn’t see the dirty tiny stove.

    What struck me was how mocking the other contestants were the whole evening. Even remembering how rude and derisive Josh has been about the others, most of them last night came across as churlish assholes. The spectacle of them all banging on the table while yelling “where’s my food?” was beyond belief.

    However, I don’t feel sorry for the brothers. I think Josh is a thoroughly unpleasant man. Little brother may be on the spectrum – I’m not a diagnostician – or he may be just a twerp aping his brother because he thinks it’s cool to be an insulting tosser. I doubt any lasting damage will be done to either of them by being on the show. They’re too arrogant and self-righteous to take on board any lessons given to them by anyone other than God-fearing, virtuous “Christians” because only they have the answers to life.

    Manu’s little outburst gave me a laugh. He’s not a good actor. Perhaps he was genuinely angry, but it’s presumably because he was hungry. Much as I hate to say it, Pete, out of the whole bunch, was the adult in the room.

    The boys’ menu – pretending for a moment that this is a cooking show – was stupid. Clam chowder, okay that will do. But the bread mix looked like crap and wasn’t given enough time to prove. The idea for popcorn chicken was stupid, but if doing that, why didn’t they put the drumsticks in the barbecue to begin with? I didn’t see the dessert prep, but the domes looked nice.

    I’m tired of the Peruvian woman always picking out one flavour that she says is too dominant as her reason not to like a dish, any dish. Get a new schtick, lady, you’re boring us.

    It will be interesting to see what menus the nasty bros and the country bumpkins come up with for the cook-off. That’s if I can be bothered to watch any of it. Shark, jumped.

    • Well, at least he says “could have” and not “could of”. He is not mother tongue, so we make lots of mistakes. In Germab, I would be correct for example. So a German would make a mistake like that quite often. What annoys me about Manu is the fact that his accent is wayyyyy too heavy for 10 years on that show. And for living in Australia even longer.

      • Corn bread is Southern, but not necessarily the redneck level of Deliverance. It’s hard to get proper cornmeal for corn bread here. Polenta is too coarse, masa is too fine. Those guys don’t know what they’re doing anyway, so it’s a moot point.

        • MKR has an element of Duelling Bogans to it. Yes, at the end of Deliverance they’re eating plain corn on the cob and marvelling over it, as if it was to die for. Dancing on their palates and all that jazz. Wow.

          Two minutes in a microwave does it now.

    • She will be at least one of the villains of round two. Too bad she can’t pronounce “meh”. She draws it out so long that she sounds like a sheep – mehh-hh-hh.

  18. So, did those who watched it enjoy tonight’s episode of MKR – Dumb and Dumber? Does anyone think the fix was in? Jesus, what a farce.

    • I think, for all the screen-time that’s been devoted to pointing out how much of an ass Josh has been … everyone’s forgotten about Mrs Colombia and her husband, neither of whom has the slightest idea what they’re doing in the kitchen, and — unlike Josh and Austin — have the personalities and screen presence of wet cardboard.

      Personally, I can’t bring myself to really hate Josh or his brother. That’s what channel 7 wants us to do. And I feel like, just going along with 7’s manipulations is the worse crime than just laughing along at what an unrepetent ass Josh can be. If the kid’s gonna be the asshole, at least he commits.

      But last night, the daily crossword held my attention moreso than the actual episode (which was just on in the background).

  19. I watched snippets of this, a couple minutes of each team in the kitchen to see what they were cooking, I saw that crazy ‘ratatouiile’ woman when she was explaining wht she applied and the scoring.
    Geeezus was colombian woman even in a relationship with that guy? The snippet I saw he couldn’t understand her. Even though the boys won (re my previous comment) I’m not watching.
    Enjoy

  20. “We’ve been working so hard”… wonder how many days after their disaster and the elimination the boys had to be trained by some pros to pull out a win. Personally I don’t think they did win… Manu and Pete seemed to choke when having to give them high scores on their dessert and reasonable scores on their mains.

    The only way Colombian could of stayed is if she developed a big rivalry with the Peruvians (drama drama)… but alas the producers probably want to see how Josh and Meh girl end up going (I’m thinking love triangle occurs between Meh, Josh and Meh’s frenemy)…

    New group so far is not so endearing… so far the season is a bit Meh… Soz Ch7.

  21. So far this season I have only been watching in dribs and drabs because I can’t stand it. I also watched about 10 minutes of Instant Hotel last night. Does Ch7 make “must be really obnoxious” as a main criteria for acceptance to these shows.

  22. While trying to digest the episode, I did a channel surf and hit Crime Investigation Australia (Seven 2), where they are examining the Daniel Morcombe case.
    I think that’s enough TV for the night.
    So fucking tragic.
    (Sorry for the downer everyone. Will have a better comment tomorrow)

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