Series / My Kitchen Rules

My Kitchen Rules is a cooking reality show that debuted in February 2010, and has been running in Channel Seven ever since.

Inspired by MasterChef Australia, the series follow a group of two-people teams, each representing the different states of Australia, as they compete against each other in cooking matches. Every season begins with an "Instant Restaurant" round, where the teams are separated into 2 groups, and are tasked to set-up their homes into a themed restaurant and prepare a three-course meal — consisting of an entree, main course and dessert — to the judges and their opponents. The guest teams would then judge the overall meal with a score out of 10, while the judges will grade each separate dish with a score out of 10. The team with the lowest score will be eliminated from the match.

The following rounds typically consist of a series of various challenges, that is:

• The People's Choice Challenge — Contestants are tasked to cook for an event, and the team with most people votes wins.
• The Rapid Cook-off — Teams are given 30 minutes to cook using a specified ingredient.
• Showdown — Lowest scoring teams from the Rapid cook-off must once again compete by cooking a dish using a key ingredient in 60 minutes.
• Sudden Death — A.K.A The Elimination. Two weakest teams from the People's Choice Challenge and/or Showdown, selected by the judges, must face each other in a cook-off, where each team would present a three-course meal for six judges, who will each grade the meal with a score out of 10. The lower scoring team would be eliminated.
• Food Truck challenge — A challenge introduced in, and currently exclusive to, Season 5. The contestants are divided into two groups and are tasked open a competing restaurant. The group who earns fewer money will be endangered of elimination, and must face several additional cook-offs to prove themselves worthy of the competition.

The final rounds uses a similar format to the Sudden Death battle, but with an additional difficulty spike for the Grand Finals — where, instead of plating a three-course meal for 6 judges, the teams are required to cook 20 plates of five course meals for the judges, and the eliminated teams, i.e. 100 plates per team. The champion will win a prize of $100k (raised to $250k between Seasons 3-10).

MKR is hosted by Manu Felidel, Matt Preston and Nigella Lawson (the latter two replacing Pete Evans starting in Season 12), who also serve as the series' main judges, and features Guy Grossi, Karen Martini, Liz Egan and Colin Fassnidge as the guest judges.

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The series contains examples of:

• Alpha Bitch: Season 6 Katie and Nikki. Being part-time models, the two often flaunt their beauty, are very quick to dismiss other team's dishes by claiming how much better they could perform, and almost immediately antagonize the other two-girl team, Jane and Emma, because they want to be the only two-girl team in the group.
• Ambition Is Evil: The more competitive teams are the ones more likely to be depicted as the show's villains.
  • Ginna & Anna is very combative towards the other teams, and their aggressive overeagerness to bring a smash to the competition is seen as borderline bloodthirsty.
  • Kat & Andre thinks their ambition and hard works entitles them to stay in the competition. They would unabashedly wish their opponents the worst of luck and gloat at their failures. Their frequent resort of "strategic scoring" to save themselves from being in the bottom of the leaderboard is what makes them A Darker Shade of Grey to Katie & Nikki.
  • Zana has repeatedly made a point about how ambitious she is, and how she only wants to compete against "the best". Of course, she's also seen as the snooty bitch who turns up her nose at every dish that was served in front of her.
  • Jessica and Marcos, self-proclaimed overachievers, take this up to eleven. They are perhaps the most obnoxious team to ever appear on-screen, and Jessica is apparently determined to offend every single person on the table — including the judges.
• Apologetic Attacker: Pete frequently apologizes when giving the contestants a negative feedback, especially if he knows how much effort was put in creating the dish. While judging Sheri and Emilie's first instant restaurant, he went so far as to say that it's his job to give an honest critique, and his criticism is not meant to attack the dish or the contestants themselves.
• Ascended Extra: Colin Fassnidge, who was initially introduced as a guest judge in Season 4, gets to be a main judge in the Sixth season.
• Authority in Name Only: "Princess" Jennifer Evans from the third season is not an actual member of royalty, nor does she possess any authority of one.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Sisters Tasia and Gracia communicates by screaming at and complaining about each other's work. Despite this, they have a really close bond, and their strong team work marks them as one of the best cooks in the entire MKR history.
• Back for the Finale:
  • All the eliminated teams would show up for the grand finals. And yes, the finalists will have to cook dishes for them as well.
  • This is the entire purpose of the Comeback Kitchen Weeks in Season 4, which allows previously-eliminated contestants to have another Cook-Off against each other to earn a chance to re-compete in the show's final rounds.
• Bait-and-Switch: The prep talk of Season 6's People Choice challenges were rife with this:
  • After the Redemption Round was over, the judges gathered the remaining teams in MKR's headquarters and introduced them to the MKR Headquarter's gorgeous kitchen and its pristine tools and equipment... then Colin flatly told them that they won't be using any of these stuffs. Instead, they'd have to go for a Camping Challenge, where the only tools they'd be using is a barbecue.
  • For the third People's Choice, the contestants were gathered in a pub, where Pete and Colin told them that they were going for a pub crawl. Everyone were excited by this news, until Colin backtracked on his words and said that only the two judges were going for the pub crawl. The teams, on the other hand, must remain in 5 separate pubs to cook for paying customers (as well as the judges).
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: Like many Reality TV Shows, the judges often do this when critiquing the contestants' dishes, particularly during the Instant Restaurant rounds.
  • Manu is quite well-known for his tendency to give "negative compliment", where, after eating the meal, he'd start to say something bad about it before saying that, hey, it's actually a great dish. This piece of gem almost gave the contestants a heart attack:
    Manu: This is the Redemption Round, and you are supposed to redeem yourselves... I am not happy... I am amazed.
  • This exchange too:
    Manu: This dish is ridiculous.
    Contestant: What?
    Manu: It's ridiculously good.
  • Pete, on the other hand, tends to point out the things he find good in the dish first, before telling the contestants what he finds wrong with it. For example, he said that the flavours of Jac and Shaz' pear and walnut crumble with blue cheese was "a match made in heaven"... but only if it was a cheese platter, and not a dessert. Also, the feedback he gave for Katie and Nikki's entrée in the Redemption round consisted of him praising how well-cooked the chicken livers were, before saying that everything else in the dish was a failure.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kat regards Annie as one. The latter may constantly behave like a cute and harmless airhead, but isn't shy of saying insensitive or even insulting stuffs about others. Kat angrily remarks that if Annie were to have a spirit animal, it would be a snake.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: David & Betty have a habit of preceding some of their statements with "Hashtag(#)". So when their Instant Restaurant rounds came, the other contestants lightheartedly decided to imitate them.
• Break the Haughty: This happens very frequently, as many teams confidently declare they could do better than the previous teams in their instant restaurants — but when they finally get to the kitchen, the pressure gets over their heads, a lot of things go wrong, and things go downhill from there.
  • Season 3 Thomas & Carla (Though Thomas more so), they made a splash due to their harshness in critiquing other teams' food in the Instant Restaurants, but when it's their turn, they made a huge blunder and ended up scoring last in their group (although they were not eliminated, since they had one more shot in another Instant Restaurant round with the bottom 3 teams in the 2 groups).
  • Gina and Anna from Season 6's first round. They were always complaining about the how poorly made their opponents' dishes are, made a derogatory remark about how the first two teams of the group were unworthy competition for scoring below 60/110, and believe themselves good enough to score 100 for their Instant Restaurant (a feat that has never happened in the history of MKR). When their turn to cook does come, they screwed up every dish, disappointed both the judges and their competitors and were embarrassingly the first team to be eliminated
  • Throughout the Secret rounds, Katie and Nikki had been very dismissive towards their competitors' dishes. Even the ones that were done perfectly (such as Rob and Dave's Ravioli — which were so good that even Colin had to give them a 10/10) did not elicit a single praise from these girls. When their turn to cook finally comes, they remarked that none of the previous Instant Restaurants had impressed them, and they were convinced they could do so much better. But after a series of blunders, they finally discover how hard it is to actually keep control in the kitchen, and although they weren't eliminated in this round, their behaviour were much less bitchy in the Redemption round.
  • Throughout much of season 8, Josh proclaimed himself the seafood king, yet his skill rarely resulted in any dishes that were better than mediocre. When the final Instant Restaurant round for him and Amy came, all of the dishes were a disaster, his arguing with Amy degenerated to the point that they've nearly forfeited, and his team had the distinction to be the first to be instantly eliminated from having such a rock-bottom score in the rankings. In the end, they withstood the brutal and honest criticism for their dishes, and Josh took his loss in stride.
• Broken Record: In each and every of the People's Choice challenges, the various contestants would repeatedly highlight the importance of winning People's Choice, because the winner gets safety from two eliminations, dammit.
• Can't Take Criticism:
  • When the judges were criticizing the dishes Gina & Anna made for their instant restaurant, the competitive mother and daughter, who had spent a lot of time prior to the episode boasting about their cooking skills, were desperate to save their faces and started making excuses for their apparent failure to deliver. No one else at the table find their talking back to the judges very wise.
  • Steve caused quite a huge stir in the Garden Party challenge when he actually dared to talk back against Pete when the latter criticized his dish. Colin notes that Steve's apparent inability to take criticism is his greatest weakness.
• Catchphrase:
  • Jennifer Evans, "Yeah!".
  • Queenslanders Rob & Dave repeatedly utters, "Shake n bake" before or after they finish cooking up a dish.
  • Ash has her, "Divine!"
  • David & Betty generally comment on things with "Hashtag(TopicInQuestion)".
• Caustic Critic: Irish judge Colin subverts this. He is one of the most critical and hardest to please among the 6 judges, and was initially introduced as MKRs own version of Gordon Ramsay, often pulverizing the contestants' confidence with his aggressive critiques. In later seasons, particularly in Season 6, he has mellowed down a lot. He's still very strict, but is much more fair in his judgement, more willing to praise a good dish (or at least point out the positive aspects of a mediocre one), and is generally a pleasant guy to be around.
• Celebrity Resemblance: The contestants from the second group of Season 6's Instant Restaurant were quick to notice how much Rob looks like Chris Hemsworth's Thor. Justified since they're cousins.
• Character Tic: Colin tends to close his eyes whenever he's particularly enjoying a dish.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: For the Jetstar challenge, contestants were required to wear white chef uniforms, but each teams are given different coloured hats and scarves. Ash & Camilla has red, Drasko & Bianco has dark blue, Eva & Debra has yellow, Jane & Emma has pink, Kat & Andre has orange, and Will & Steve light blue. The two judges wears all-whites.
• Compassionate Critic: Colin's infamous "tough love" is what makes him so feared by the contestants. He frequently pressures the teams to meet his exceedingly high standards, criticizes quite harshly, and tends to score lower than the rest of the judges. But his feedback is usually constructive, as he gives a detailed explanation of the dish's errors — from which the contestants can improve — and, for the most part, the people he criticizes does admit that his judging is fair. It helps that he is willing to praise a good dish whenever it is due.
• Confession Cam: The show has two variants. The first is specific only to the Instant restaurant rounds, where the judges would read the menu to see what the contestants were serving for that evening, and describes the dish, the challenges of preparing them, and what they expect from the dish. The second one is a typical Confession Cam, where the teams would discuss about the dishes they're making, why they serve it, and comment about the problems they face during the preparation, how they handled (or mishandled) the situation. They'd also talk about the other contestants and add remarks about the dishes they're serving too.
• Cool Car: The judges would arrive at the instant restaurants in different cars every night.
• Cowboy: Robert from Season 6 used to work as a Cowboy, and lightens the mood of the table by telling stories about his past endeavours dealing with bulls and cattles and other animals.
• Crazy-Prepared: The producers themselves, with filming both victories for the Final 2 just to avoid spoilers from leaking out.
• Creepy Blue Eyes: Kat has a pair of piercing blues that the camera would focus heavily upon when she's being particularly nasty (or "villainous", if you will).
• Critical Dissonance:
  • In-universe in Season 6. During Kat and Andre's redemption round, the judges seem to really enjoy the ile flottante dessert they served, but the rest of the guests find the dish too sweet/sugary and generally unpalatable (even though they do admit that the dish is technically cooked well).
  • Another one in Season 7, where Carmine & Lauren won the Fishermen's Choice, even though Pete & Colin found it one of the weaker dish of the group, and only found the fish to be well done.
• Demoted to Extra: Colin's ascended status in Series 6 comes at the the expense of Manu, whose judging role is greatly reduced as he no longer appears to judge at the People's Choice Challenges.
• Divided We Fall: The main reason why Sheri and Emilie did so poorly in the Coles Farmer Challenge was because they weren't working properly as a team. Both girls were doing their own things individually with little communication, and the brief fight they have over Sheri's failure to create a decent meringue, as well as the heat and stress causing the latter to become snippy at her partner, set them back even further that Colin actually had to come over to their stand and remind them about the necessity of teamwork. Unfortunately, when they finally managed to pull themselves together, it was too late, their dish was considered as one of the weakest dishes, sending both girls to Sudden Death, and eventually causing their elimination.
• Double Standard: The show makes a big deal over Rose and Josh being the "first mother-and-son team in MKR", and ignores the fact that there has not been a father-daughter team either, prior to Robert and Lynzey.
• Dude, Not Funny!: invoked During the first Redemption Round, Andre felt a little out of place being the only guy at the table. Bored by all the girl-talk, he tried to amuse himself by telling a number of increasingly unfunny Dumb Blonde jokes, either oblivious or deliberately ignoring the fact that almost half the table (Katie, Nikki, Sheri, and Emilie) are blondes. Suffice to say, "Dude, Not Funny!" pretty much sums up the other guests' reaction to his behaviour.
• Elimination Catch Phrase: Manu would bid the eliminated teams, "Au revoir, and good luck," before they leave the kitchens.
• Epic Fail: Individual dishes that managed to score a 1 from the judges for the Instant Restaurant Round, or even worse, an Instant Restaurant meal that the judges & the contestant dislike in all three courses. Notables include:
  • Season 3 Thomas & Carla's Lavender Cake in their Instant Restaurant, where Pete consider it tastes like soap.
  • Season 3's Peter & Gary Sudden Death against Carly & Emily. Curb stomp battle has never been appropriate for them (17 against 51).
  • Season 5's David & Corrine's 2nd Instant Restaurant, a record breaking 27 out of 100 due to a really thick soup and a cake with an odd texture.
  • And that record was broken with Season 8's Bek & Ash, where they got 26.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Despite holding the status of "MKR's new villains" for their bitchy attitudes, Katie and Nikki are actually quite fair, even generous, in judging their competitors' instant restaurants. They were shocked when Kat and Andre admitted to have "scored strategically" (i.e. giving their opponents a ridiculously low score regardless of their instant restaurant's quality) to get out from their perilous position in the bottom of the leader board.
• Even the Guys Want Him:
  • Drasko admits having a man-crush on Colin, and this is after the other girls (including Drasko's fiancée Bianca) has expressed similar sentiments.
  • The 7th episode of Season 7 actually shows more guys getting all awestruck at how dazzling the two hosts are.
• Everything Sounds Sexier in French:
  • Although he doesn't usually speak in French, a number of female contestants finds Manu's French accent particularly appealing.
  • Invoked by Ash & Camilla in their Ultimate Instant Restaurant. One of their desserts, called Gâteau aux Trois Laits (or three-milk cake in English), is actually from South America and is actually called torta de tres leches. They just used the French translation of the dish to make it sound more posh.
• Evil Laugh: Kat gave a menacing cackle when she heard Pete and Colin slamming down the dish that Annie and Lloyd made for the Camping Challenge.
• Fighting Your Friend: Sheri & Emilie and Eva & Debra had formed a very close friendship during their Instant Restaurant rounds, but after the Coles Farmer Challenge, the two teams must battle each other in a Sudden Death Cook-off to earn their place in the competition. Even the preview taglines the episode as "Mate against Mate"
• Foreign People Are Sexy: It is very much more common to see the contestants swoon over the French Manu Feildel and Irish Colin Fassnidge than it would be to find such reactions for Pete Evans.
• French Cuisine Is Haughty: Ash and Camilla are self-proclaimed "food snobs" who are very proud of their refined tastes. So of course they're serving a French menu in their French-themed Instant Restaurant.
• Friendly Rivalry: Despite being competitors, most teams usually get along well during the Instant Restaurant rounds — which is usually more like a group pals having dinner together.
• The Gadfly: Manu seem to enjoy poking fun at the contestants with his Bait-and-Switch Comment. He'd made a statement of displeasure, wait for the contestants to panic, before revealing that he actually liked the dish.
• Gilligan Cut: In the first 2015 People's Choice Challenge, Kat and Andre were very pleased to see how quickly their dish sold out, and proudly said how the people seem to be enjoying their food. Cut to one of the campers saying that he didn't like the food.
• Gratuitous French: Socialite Camilla goes to France often, and she tries to show off her familiarity with the culture by introducing her team's instant restaurant in French. This only serves to confuse the rest, since no one else in the room understood French (not even Ash, her partner!).
• Harsh Talent Show Judge: Colin Fassnidge, who is one of the most critical and hardest to please among the 6 judges. Initially introduced as MKR's own version of Gordon Ramsay, he often pulverizes the contestants' confidence with his aggressive critiques and tends to score lower than the rest of the panels. However, he drops most of his aggressive attitude after becoming one of the main judges in season 6, is more willing to praise a good dish (or at least point out the positive aspects of a mediocre one), and is generally a pleasant guy to be around.
• He's Not My Boyfriend: Emma zigzags around this trope in regards to her relationship with Steve. At times, she would insist that Steve is "just a very good friend" of hers. Other times, she'd admit that she doesn't mind being the lady of [Steve's] house.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: MKR's judges, especially Pete, would prefer for the contestants to create simple dishes that are done wholeheartedly, than have them go overboard with complicated dishes in an attempt to be impressive.
  Pete: Sometimes these are simple dishes, but when the cooking comes from the heart, they are by far the best.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Inevitable, since the teams require the 2 contestants to have a pre-existing relationship. Most same-sex teams consist of a pair of best friends.
• Holding Hands: Most teams usually hold hands for each other's support other as they wait for the judges' to critique/score their dishes.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Overwhelmed by the stress of having to serve to paying customers in the Pub Crawl challenge made Rose suddenly crave for alcohol.
• Impossibly Delicious Food: Any dish that gets a 10/10 from the judges qualifies, but probably the most notable of this is Rob & Dave's mushroom ravioli they made for their first Instant Restaurant, as it claimed the first ever 10/10 from the notoriously critical judge, Colin Fassnidge.
• In-Series Nickname: Oyster farmer Rob Hemsworth actually gets nicknamed "Thor" by other contestants due to his striking resemblance to his cousin, Chris.
• Just Eat Gilligan: Played to an almost literal sense when Will & Steve were arguing over the exact ratios of ingredients they need to use for their tart tatin in the Garden Challenge. Colin wonders why they don't just taste it.
• Lame Pun Reaction: How Pete responds to the Incredibly Lame Pun Colin made about on the first People's Choice Challenge of the 6th Season, which took place in a camp site.
  Colin: It's intense. Get it? In tents.
  Pete: Oh, mate, I'm outta here.
• Look Behind You: Pete tries to pull this off on Manu while they were judging the main course for the Sudden Death between Rob & Dave and Robert & Lynzey to steal his leftover chicken. He was not successful, of course — probably because he made his intention very clear from the start.
  Pete: I'm looking at Manu's [chicken skin] over there, and I don't think it will last very long... Look! What's over there?
• Man Hug: In season 6's fourth Sudden Death, Colin gave Rob & Dave, who were one of the members of his Secret round, a farewell hug when they were eliminated.
• Memetic Hair: invokedAsh from Season 6 has a very distinctive frizzy, almost afro-like, hairstyle that other contestants and interviewers like to poke fun at.
• Mess on a Plate: The Main dish that Emma and Jane made for their Redemption round looks very ugly (Emma herself said it looks like a dog's breakfast), but everyone loved the taste, and Pete even said that it's a step up from their Entrée, which itself is already considered very good.
• Mirror Character: The similarities between rivals Drasko and Steve were constantly lampshaded by the other Group 3 members from the first time they meet, due to their similar hairstyle, clothing choices, and kitchen conduct. Drasko's fiancée, Bianca, mentions how Steve is like Drasko 2.0.
• Momma's Boy: Josh, the first contestant in the history of MKR to form a mother-and-son team, is very dedicated to his mum. A long-time fan of the series, he jumped at the chance to compete the moment he reached the minimum age limit, but declares that he will not compete with anyone but his mother. They are not embarrassed to display their affection for one another, either, and their close relationship is seen as touching by the other teams (and even the judges).
• Mum Looks Like a Sister: Inverted. Will and Steve are mistaken as a father-and-son team at first. Not only are the two not related, their ages are not actually that far apart either.
• My Girl Is a Slut: In one of their Confession Cam for the Wedding Crasher challenge, Ash happily mentions that Camilla would probably have 10 weddings because she loooves dating boys, to the latter's horror.
  Camilla: That doesn't mean I'm going to marry them all!
• Neutral Female: During the Sudden Death Cook-off between Annie & Lloyd and Vicky & Celine, the spectators were quick to notice that Lloyd is pretty much the one who does everything in the kitchen, while Annie's workload is... much less. This is especially apparent during their preparation of their main course, where Annie spends the whole time manually crushing avocado sauce for the dish, whereas Lloyd has to run around to marinade and cook both the miso salmon and mushroom tempura.
• Never Bare Headed: One of the Queensland mates, Rob, is never seen (at least on-screen) without his hat.
• Nice Guy:
  • While this by no means lowers his judging standard, Pete is usually far less harsh in his criticism than Manu or Colin would be. He seems to sincerely try to find something good in the dish he's judging, give appreciation to the team's efforts, encourage them to do better in their next courses, and would sometimes even apologize for having to give the dish such a low score.
  • Carly and Tresne from Season 5 were way too sweet for their own good, with the former breaking down upon having to watch a fellow contestant get a harsh critique and even stopping to help Annie and Jason when they were struggling during their instant death cookoff. The epitome of this is giving the disastrous David & Corriene a 7 in their Instant Restaurant
  • Among the Season 6 contestants, Matt and Rob are described by others as thoughtful and gentlemanly. They also manage to remain very good-natured even after being placed at the bottom of the leaderboard when they fail to deliver any good meals in their instant restaurant (many other contestants at their position would become spiteful and hyper-critical to their subsequent hosts to bring others down to their level). Pete even commends them about how maturely they handled the criticism.
  • Robert was well liked among the other contestants for being a Southern Gentleman with a great sense of humor, and they were extremely disappointed when he and Lynzey ended up getting eliminated early on.
  • There is also Will, who is shown to be supportive towards the other teams, and even gives cooldown hugs to Lynn, and later Lynzey, when they start to break down due to their dishes not working out as planned.
• Non-Gameplay Elimination:
  • Barely averted with Josh and Andi. Had they not lost their elimination, they had planned to drop out at that point regardless due to Andi learning she was pregnant.
  • Just before the Pub Crawl challenge, Vicky and Celine was forced to withdraw from the competition after Celine got hospitalized for a food poisoning incident.
  • During the Season 9 Ultimate Instant Restaurant round (specifically Kim & Suong's Ultimate Instant Restaurant), Sonya and Hadil were dismissed from the table after engaging in general bullying behaviour towards the other contestants, which then culminated in one of them making a number of threats towards a contestant who had attempted to calm things down. Manu and Pete were forced to intervene and after telling both women that they were dismissed from the table, they were removed from the competition altogether.
• Odd Couple:
  • Season 6's Jane and Emma's team tagline is "polar opposites", with Jane being the prim-and-proper perfectionist "Dessert Queen", and Emma being her laidback and messy housemate who specialize in cooking savoury dishes. Despite their differences, the two are best friends.
  • To a lesser extent, Will and Steve. The latter is an ambitiously aspiring chef, and is very meticulous in trying to get their dish cooked and plated perfectly. By contrast, his "sous chef" Will is much less attentive to such details, and gets some flak from his friend when his work fails to meet Steve's standards.
  • Season 7's Cheryl & Matt, dating despite having a huge age difference being them, even their Instant Restaurant's name is literally "The Odd Couple".
• Oh, Crap!:
  • At the end of Season 6's 12th episode, most, if not all, of the remaining contestants immediately got worried when Colin (who had already established a reputation of having a very strict standards) makes an unexpected appearance. And this was before he brought in the extra 6 teams for his secret Instant Restaurant round.
  Ash: Oh my God, we are dead!
  • Many teams dreaded the Camping Challenge they were assigned to for the season's first People's Choice, as most of them aren't used to the outdoors, much less camping. Only Rob and Dave, who loves fishing and camps often, were actually happy to go for it.
• The One Guy: The Instant Restaurant: Redemption round of season 6 has way more girls than guys. The group is made up of 2 couples and 4 two-girl teams — so, when one couple is doing the cooking, there'd be just one guy left on the table, surrounded by 9 ladies until the judges arrive.
  Manu: I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a lot of ladies around this table tonight.
• One Head Taller:
  • Annie's height barely reaches her boyfriend Lloyd's shoulders.
  • Likewise, Drasko is about a head taller than Bianca. But then again, he's a head taller than almost everyone else in the competition.
• One-Steve Limit: Completely averted in the 6th season, where each of the three groups have someone named "Rob" in the team—although the one from the first group is actually called "Robert", and the one from group 2 is eliminated early. Lampshaded when Rob & Dave had to go against Robert & Lynzey in Sudden Death, and some people joked about how there's probably not enough space in the kitchen for two "Rob"s.
• Platonic Life-Partners: How Jane & Emma describes their actual relationship with Will & Steve, despite the Ship Tease between Emma and Steve they invoke on-screen. As mentioned in an official interview, they frequently visit each other in their respective states and went on an overseas holiday together during an MKR break. Despite this, there are no actual romantic ties between any of these pairs.
• Plausible Deniability: In Episode 17 of Season 6, Will and Steve planned to serve a roulade for their dessert. However, due to a cooking error, their cake turned out too hard and could not be rolled. So they cut up the dough into circles and stacked them up like a cake sandwich. The excuse they used for this failure is that, since "roulade" is derived from the Latin word for "circle", their dish would technically still be a roulade as long as it has a circular shape. This explanation seem to work for everyone but Colin and Drasko, who was convinced there's a funny business going on with the dessert. (Ironically, Drasko was the one who enjoyed this dessert the most, eating up 3 whole plates of it, and even offering to finish Colin's if Colin doesn't want his)
• Pretty Boy: Steve, apparently. He looks boyish enough to be mistaken as Will's son, and both Emma and Nikki finds him hot. Will even lampshaded this when talking about the dish their team made for the Coles Farmer Challenge.
  Will: It's not as pretty as Steve would like it, or as pretty as he is, but we got it.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: MKR's judges have repeatedly told the contestants to keep things simple: don't deviate from the way they usually cook, and don't overcomplicate the dish by using unfamiliar techniques and ingredients for the sake of using it — yet the participants consistently violate these rules by serving dishes they've never cooked before, trying to "dress up" their dishes with useless additions, or getting too tied up in their own menu and plating subpar components to an otherwise good dish to deliver everything written on it. This is the reason why Manu was actually glad that Eva & Debra chose not to serve jelly with their kulfi because they were not happy with its outcome, despite the fact that it was promised in the menu.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Most of the contestants were very surprised that a pair of burly guys like Rob & Dave are capable of making delicate, refined dishes such as ravioli.
• The Rival: While all the competitors are technically each other's rivals, some people would show particular animosity towards one another. In season 6, Steve and Drasko are probably the ones who clashes the most during their group's instant restaurant rounds. Both are aspiring chefs and both are indeed knowledgeable about cooking techniques. So they continually try to show-off these knowledge and one-up each other by debating about how a well-done dish should be made.
• The Runner-Up Takes It All:
  • Season 3 winners Jennifer & Leigh are rumored to not even speaking with each other after the show, while runner-ups Nic & Rocco now own a chain of patisseries, run cooking classes and have written two cookbooks.
  • Compared to Season 5 winners Bree & Jessica, who work separately in the food industry, runners-up Chloe & Kelly are running a catering company, a cooking school and working as restaurant critics in their home city of Perth together.
  • And Season 6, um...would even Pete & Manu able to one-up a viral phenomenon that is Freakshake, a creation made by the first eliminated Gina & Anna.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: While all the judges are usually well-dressed, Pete's style is usually neater than the others. One recap article jokingly nicknamed him "Fancy Pants" because of it.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: High school sweethearts Annie and Lloyd have this dynamic. Lloyd, a medical student, is usually calm and is the less talkative of the two; Annie, on the other hand, is shown to be cheerful, bubbly, and sweet (almost sickeningly so, with her love for pink, sparkles and Disney).
• Skewed Priorities: In the earlier round of Season 6, Kat and Andre had made a big deal about Ash and Camilla serving a store-bought baguette rather than a home made one; so, in their Redemption round, they were determined to bake their own bread. Unfortunately, they put too much effort on the bread (which turned out stale), and their main dish was overcooked as a result.
• Ship Tease:
  • Carly and Rocco during Season 3, which other teams and the viewers noted as the season goes on.
  • Invoked in Season 6. Emma flirts a lot with Steve during the third Instant Restaurant round of Season 6, and their "budding relationship" does not go unnoticed by the other teams. Steve is noticeably less critical towards Emma's cooking than he had been to others, and Emma got a He's Not My Boyfriend moment when she was asked to give an opinion for Steve's dish. They later reveal that they're just playing up their "romance" for the cameras, and are really just good friends.
• Shipper on Deck: Emma and Steve's respective partners, Jane and Will are very approving of their Ship Tease. Jane is more obvious about it and points out Emma's attraction to Steve at almost every opportunity, but Will has his moments as well.
  Jane: I'm already planning their wedding.
  Will: (To Steve, regarding the hypothetical wedding) You just have to say yes.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: During the final episode of the Redemption round, Kat was complaining about how "strategic scoring" was the reason why she and Andre are at the bottom of the leader board, essentially accusing the other teams of being unfair in their judging. Manu tells her that, if she wants to stay in the competition, she only needs to do one thing: make good food.
• Sibling Team: The contest follows the endeavours from teams of two. Sometimes, they happen to be siblings, and they're usually some of the top contenders. Season 2 had Sammy & Bella, who won the competition; Season 3 had Steve & Helen and Carly & Emily, both of whom made it into the Top 5, where the latter proceeded to semifinals; 4 had Jake & Elle, semifinalists; 5 had Helena & Vikki, also semifinals; 7 had Mitch & Laura and Tasia & Gracia, both teams considered top contenders who never faced sudden death and made it to the Top 5, the latter eventually crowned as the season's champion.
• Signature Laugh: Shaz has this loud, hearty laugh that — while rarely shown on the actual screen — is apparently memetic enough that it was used as one of the season's official MKR ringtones.
• Signature Move: Drasko seem to specialize in the sous-vide cooking technique, which he frequently employs when he's trying to be particularly showy. So far, he's used it four times: for the Wedding Crashers, the Sudden Death, the cooking Showdown, and for one of the main courses in their Ultimate Instant Restaurant.
• Silent Snarker: Ash is said to be the most vocal in expressing her dislike over a dish without actually voicing her complaints. She makes her displeasure very evident with her expressions.
• Sound-Effect Bleep: Especially offensive profanity is bleeped out by the show, and a special MKR censor is painted over the swearer's mouth, presumably to stop anyone from lip-reading their swear words.
• Special Guest: Season 7 brought Rachel Khoo to accompany Colin in judging the Secret Instant Restaurant rounds, and also had Curtis Stone to star in one of the challenges.
• Spiritual Successor: Seven Network used to broadcast a similar show called My Restaurant Rules in 2004-2005, where, instead of having cooking showdown, the competing couples are tasked to open successful restaurants by renovating a vacated one.
• The Storyteller: Robert, being a cowboy, always have exciting stories, usually about his odd encounters with various animals, to share with the table. According to his instant restaurant group, he would command attention from the table the moment he opens his mouth to speak, and everyone — including the judges — would stop what they are doing to listen to him. When he was eliminated from the competition for losing Sudden Death against Rob & Dave, he said how it was unfortunate for him to have to go so quickly, because he still have a lot of stories to tell.
• Strictly Formula: The show eventually descended into this during Season 6: an individual challenge that results in one couple gaining exemption from the next challenge and the bottom two getting sent to an elimination the very next episode, and so on. This may have been due to the increased number of contestants and the sheer time it took to get through the Instant Restaurant rounds.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The first Redemption Round trailer already gives away that one of the teams will break the Instant Restaurant score record of 95. The second trailer tells us who the lucky team is before the episode begins. It's Eva and Debra.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Season 4's Dan & Steph, from being 1 point away from being eliminated in their 1st Instant Restaurant (and managing to score even lower with their 2nd), to becoming winners of their season.
  • Season 6's Eva and Debra went from barely avoiding elimination to getting the highest Instant Restaurant score of the show so far, eventually managing to reach the semifinals.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Drasko and Bianca, throughout the Ultimate Instant Restaurant rounds, became increasingly bitter and negative after they blew up their chance and ended up with a miserable score of 51/100. They complain a lot, openly wishes for their opponents to strike a disaster, and nitpick at dishes that the judges and other teams find good. This bit them in the ass later when they ended up getting eliminated by a long shot.
• Trademark Favourite Food: Manu's love for sauces is so well-known, it's almost memetic. "Where's my sauce?" is practically his Catchphrase.
• Urban Legend Love Life: Steve. Aside from the Ship Tease moments with Emma that is shown on-screen, he's also rumoured to be going out with Nikki, and later Lynzey. Most of the parties involved has denied that anything serious is going on between them (Emma and Lynzey asserts that Steve is just a good friend), but it doesn't stop gossip columnists from publishing stories about Steve's apparent status as a womanizer.
• Waistcoat of Style: Colin frequently wears a vest instead of a suit in his appearances, and looks just as well-dressed and stylish as the other judges.
• Wham Episode: Several "twists" have been offered in the history of My Kitchen Rules. It doesn't usually change the show's format by much, but it does increase the stakes for the contestants by a great deal.
  • The 4th and 5th season introduces the "gatecrasher round", where after the two Instant Restaurant groups have completed their tasks, three more teams are introduced to battle with the three lowest scoring teams of the previous round, increasing the number of teams from the usual 12 to 15.
  • The 6th season amped this up with the "secret round", where a whole new group of 6 teams are added to the competition, bringing a total of 18 teams to the show. Not only that, this "secret" instant restaurant round will not be judged by Pete and Manu (as they usually are), but by the iron-fisted judge, Colin Fassnidge.
  • Defied in the 7th series. While Colin's secret round was treated by the existing competitors as surprising, the fact that it's going to happen is already promoted in the trailers before the season even starts.
• Written-In Absence: Pete and Manu were not present in the third round of Season 6, as the group's Instant Restaurant is led by Colin. Likewise, Colin replaced Manu as Pete's co-judge for the People's Choice Challenges. This was already lampshaded by the two hosts after the last Instant Restaurant, where they mentioned that they won't be traveling around with the contestants for all the challenges, but Colin will be.