2. my kitchen rules

Today's topic is about 

educating my reader's about something that I know a lot about.

I don't really know a lot of stuff.

So I'll just talk about something simple :

My Kitchen Rules !

In case you haven't read my previous addiction posts.

It's a TV Show.

A reality-cooking show.

Which just so happens to rely on the 'drama' elements,

more than the 'cooking' elements.

You can say, 

this is the (almost) exact opposite of Masterchef.

This year was MKR's fourth season.

And I shall talk ONLY about the fourth season,

in which there was plenty of format changes,

since I never really watched the first 3 seasons

and there are no DVDs out there

for reasons I dare not ask myself.

OK, so this is how it goes.

A team consisting of 2 

(has to be related in some form :

co-workers, siblings, best friends etc)

from every state in Australia 

(except the Northern Territory)

will be selected to compete.

So that means there will be a group from

Victoria, New South Wales, 

Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia

and last but not least,

Western Australia.

And then the competition BEGINS !

The 'first' round of MKR is called

Instant Restaurant.

This is where every team take turns 

to bring all the contestants to their home state.

And cook for them.

Oh yeah. 

They're also cooking for the hosts/judges :

Pete Evans and Manu Feildel !

The teams will have to set up a mini restaurant and decorate it.

Usually they do this in their own house 

or their backyard.

They give their place a fancy restaurant name.

And then they cook.

And cook.

AND COOK.

The show starts with 3 hours on the clock

for the team to go around the city

(or wherever they want)

to buy ingredients.

They can order beforehand 

but all purchasing and pick-up has to be done

within the 3 hour limit.

Wait, it was 3 hours right ?

After the 3 hour clock runs out.

Another 3 hour clock begins.

Wait, this one is 3 hours too right ?

And that's the clock for cooking.

And also the time until all the other

teams/guests arrive.

It is completely OK to still be shopping in your cooking time.

But.

Shop at your own risk.

The team of the day will have to prepare a 3-course meal for the night:

Entree, Main and Dessert.

Every team would be able to score their overall meal from 0-10.

It's totally ok to be completely bias because

the show emphasises more on b*tchy contestants than cooking !

When the team's cooking clock reaches 0,

the contestants (due to ingenious camera and editing)

will be right at their doorsteps

pressing on a door bell that has been 

conveniently blue-tacked for plot purposes.

So yeah ! 

Every Instant Restaurant on the show has the same doorbell.

The duo would have to already be dressed in proper attire.

And be able to greet the guests.

They bring their guests to their Instant Restaurant

where they will wait even longer for their food.

After about another 30 minutes,

judges Pete and Manu arrive.

And they have to run to their front door again

to greet and escort them.

Then they head back to their kitchen.

Still no time limit.

Of course, the guests would obviously be pissed at waiting for their food

and give a low score.

But still who cares ?

At least we get drama right ?

So the team serves up their Entree.

Every waits in cold silence as

Pete and Manu gets the first bites.

Then they give their verdict.

Tears will be shed,

praises will be....ummm...praised.

Then the team heads back into the kitchen to prepare their main.

While the other teams/guests dig in.

And talk about how terrible the food is.

And this is where 90% of the controversy happen.

Rinse and repeat for Main and Dessert.

And add in some chaos.

Some epic fails, some more crying.

And more swearing, of course.

And the day is finally over.

Every team gives their score

without the team of the day present,

this is where all the bias judging come from.

Then the competing team comes out to her the total score.

But wait.

They're not done yet.

Pete and Manu have to score as well.

I mean, they ARE judges after all.

Are judges are always fair.

Which is why they get to score EVERY DISH 

rather than the overall meal.

And this is why the competing teams 

don't care if they **&%*&(  on the other teams.

Because at the end of the day,

it's the judges you want to impress.

And they'll only judge the food.

And not about that fact that

you made them wait 3 hours for prawn pancakes

after serving them a cabbage salad.

We do this for every team in their home state.

Then we go back to Kitchen Headquarters 

which is located in Sydney. I THINK.

Seriously, there's no info about it.

Where the team with the lowest score will GO HOME.

And then we repeat this whole process again.

But with a DIFFERENT GROUP OF CONTESTANTS.

Yes, there are TWO SEPARATE GROUPS in this show.

Take a team from every state and

throw them in a Instant Restaurant round AGAIN.

Loser goes home.

After all this is done,

the producers decide to stretch the show to its fullest 

and milk as much money as they possibly can

by introducing 3 NEW TEAMS known as

The Gatecrashers.

Each team is from a random state.

And this year they were from

Victoria, Western Australia and New South Wales.

Now, the bottom 2 teams from Group 1 and Group 2

will have to join the gatecrashers for 

ANOTHER ROUND OF INSTANT RESTAURANT.

And the team with the lowest score will have to go home.

Confusing ?

Yes !

Addicting ?

YES ! strangely enough.

Did I mention this was just the first round ?

Listening to Test Drive - How to Train Your Dragon OST

Feeling Better. in more ways than one.

TK