Lyndsey Rodrigues
·Head of Yahoo Lifestyle and Entertainment
Updated ·4-min read
Things are heating up on MKR as fans were shocked on Tuesday night by the news that the teams would be heading around the country yet again for another round of Instant Restaurants. The top five teams will now be tasked with cooking two entrées, two mains and two desserts, as well as dealing with the inevitable drama of the dinner parties.
The news came after the teams had competed in the Woolworths Family Favourites challenge - which saw them plating up dishes like Mike and Pete's Chicken Cacciatore with Blue Cheese Polenta and Caz and Fergus's Steak Diane. Brothers Liam and Rob acted as judges alongside Manu and Colin for the challenge, after winning the round the previous night.
Never ones to miss a detail, fans of the show were very quick to point out a strange detail in the competition - calling out the show's main sponsor, Woolworths, in the process.
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MKR fans point out odd Woolies detail
"There is no way my Woolworths store has the quality of the ingredients on this show," a viewer wrote on Facebook. "They can't even get a baker to work there for the past 6 months! How's the quality at your Woolies?"
"Omg - I just said the same thing to my husband - we buy lamb racks and never has it been that quality," someone replied.
"Same as the newest season of Ready Steady Cook," another said. "The produce was far superior to what we get in our stores."
"Have never seen wagyu at any of my local Woolies (mince burger patties yes, nothing else though)," a third replied.
Other comments included:
"100% agree our Woolworths is always half empty and the cuts of meat do not look anywhere like what the show gets to use."
"I was thinking the same when I saw all that food. Nothing like our Woolworths. Not even fresh where I live."
"It’s not just the quality of the produce that amazes me, it’s also the range and diversity of the produce available in 'pantry.'"
And, "Some of the fruit and veggies are not always all that fresh, they are soft but you are still expected to pay full price. They have cut down on their deli meat, types of cheeses and butter."
Another group member came to the chat with what they believed to be the reason for the produce appearing so fresh.
"Carefully hand-picked and staged for the show," they said. "Apparently when they do the home cooking rounds the specific store they each shop at spends hours with teams staging the store making sure the stock on shelves looks perfect same with meat and veg. All fully stocked, looking perfect. I've heard on here in the past from people who have worked in the stores and they have said a day or two before filming they send in teams to stage the store just like any other TV set."
What happens to the leftover food on MKR?
There was also the question of what happens to all of the food once the cook is done, particularly as the pantry is always so well-stocked for the challenges.
"I wonder what they do with all the leftover fresh produce?" one fan pondered.
"Hopefully they give to a charity like Second Bite. I believe that's what MasterChef does," someone replied.
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"Either that or the production crews might get take home baggies of fruit and veg at the end of filming," another viewer suggested. "But I have always looked at this stuff and thought they know exactly how many people are cooking why have 20- 30 kgs of lamb, or beef etc when there will only ever be 1 kg of any particular cut taken from the shelves? Money trumps common sense every time - it's all about how it looks."
Yahoo Lifestyle understands that the leftover produce is, in fact, given to food donation charities.
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