Gatecrashers and ‘sassy best friends’ Zoe and Zac copped heat from the moment they arrived on My Kitchen Rules, with some competitors questioning why they were even there. Because Zoe, as a pescetarian, eats only fish and vegetables.
“A lot of people around the table thought that [because of my dietary restrictions] I didn’t deserve to be on the show,” Zoe tells TV WEEK.
“I knew it was going to be challenging, but I didn’t expect it to be so hostile.”
This week OG contestants Angus and Simon double down on their attack, with Angus labelling Zoe a ‘fussy eater’ and Simon likening her inability to taste meat dishes to playing golf ‘without the clubs’.
“There was an overall disdain about our position in the competition from the get-go,” Zac says. “But we went through the exact same process [to be cast] that everyone else did. So, who are you to say that we don’t deserve to be here?”
“They seemed to want to force meat into my mouth,” Zoe adds. “To be treated like that was really hard.”
She says she was disappointed Simon, being a teacher, wasn’t more “receptive” to her pescetarianism, given he would accommodate different dietary needs in a classroom.
It’s not the first time a contestant has refused to eat meat on the show. Last year, nutritionist Jacinta’s plant-based diet raised the ire of ‘Michael the Meat Master’.
Meanwhile, Zac found so-called ‘classy bogans’ Alisha and Deanne “a tough pill to swallow” because of their tendency to dominate the conversation.
“It’s not much of a conversation when it’s a one-way street,” he says. That said, Zac respected the South Australian besties because “they wear their hearts on their sleeves”.
My Kitchen Rules airs Monday and Tuesday, 7.30pm, Channel Seven and 7plus.
