MKR fans have been left divided after a #plategate scandal rocked Monday night’s episode.
It was best friends Alisha and Deanne’s turn to host their Instant Restaurant in Adelaide and the women went in determined to prove the rest of the contestants wrong.
The ‘bogan best friends’ served seared scallops for entree, lamb backstrap for main, and sticky date pudding for dessert, but all anyone could talk about was the divisive plates the courses were served on.
After the entree arrived on colourful melamine plates, a heated discussion erupted at the table about whether they were suitable for this kind of competition.
Food stylist Jane, who is one of the most divisive contestants on this season, said the plate “bothered her a lot”.
“You can’t plate on something like that and know what you’re doing,” she said. “I think it all just gets lost… there was too much going on for me.”
“That’s a little bit problematic,” she added.
When fellow contestant Mary asked Jane whether it would affect her score, she bluntly replied “Yeah”.
“But it’s a cooking competition, not a plating competition,” Mary shot back.
“Then why are we doing an entire restaurant space? That’s an entire experience,” Jane replied, before adding that the other contestants must judge on the whole experience.
Krysten then jumped in and said the plates are “a bit tacky” but it’s not going to impact how she judges the food. When her daughter Lucy backed her up, Jane said she was “a little naive”.
When the Adelaide mums began to serve up their main meal, the other contestants were quick to notice the fruit-themed melamine plates it was served on and braced themselves for Jane’s reaction.
“I think Jane is about to throw up at the sight of this plate,” joked fellow contestant Tiffany in a piece to camera.
“Omg there’s blueberries on it,” added her partner Giancarlo.
The camera then panned to Jane who was looking… horrified by the plates in question.
“This plate to me was an absolute hot mess. In no universe does that make sense… images of fruit on a main course,” she said.
“It was like sitting at the kiddies table.”
MKR fans weigh in on #plategate
While the episode was airing, fans were quick to take to social media to share their own opinions on #plategate and many actually agreed with Jane.
“I’m not a fan of Jane, but she was correct tonight, regarding the plates used for the main meal,” wrote one fan in a MKR Facebook group. “Serving protein and veg on plates decorated with fruit.
“It did look like a children’s party or picnic. In this instance aesthetic mattered.”
“I don’t care about the colours but plastic plates for a dinner party competition is crazy?!” added someone else.
“I agreed about using plastic plates. To me that would affect the meal. They do have to worry about plating because it becomes part of the comp as it gets further along,” added a third.
While others said it was the food that mattered, not what it was served on.
“Who cares about the plate? Should be scoring the food, not the plate. Besides, I believe it’s been set up to cause a reaction,” one person commented.
“I loved the plates! Much better than boring white, the world needs more colour!” chimed in someone else on the official MKR Facebook page.
Other fans thought that production should provide each team with standard white plates to even the playing field.
“Maybe white catering dinnerware could be provided,” one person suggested.
“They could consider that everyone uses plain white plates which would then direct attention to the food and make it fair for all,” agreed someone else.
MKR’s Jane hits back at critics
Jane recently spoke to TV Week, saying it would be ‘disingenuous’ to overlook the element of plating up a meal given her job as a stylist.
“It would be disingenuous and basically impossible for me to overlook such an important element,” she said.
“I made the comparison of whether you would go out into the world having made a conscious decision over the top half of your outfit and left the bottom half up to chance.”
She also hit back at the edit she’s received so far, calling herself and Shane “down to earth” people.
“Looking back, maybe reality TV wasn’t the best place to showcase something so personal,” she admitted.
“A tricky edit, and all the love is lost. In hindsight, maybe I am best positioned as the third judge… the one who takes style and etiquette into consideration!”
MKR judge Colin Fassnidge weighed in on the backlash against Jane on the Woman’s Day Instagram account.
“Horrible comments, it’s only a TV show,” he commented. “The world is nasty enough at the moment.”
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