Is it okay for non-meat eaters to go on My Kitchen Rules (MKR)? That is the question raised on the latest episode of MKR after newcomer Zoe revealed she was a pescatarian, raising questions about whether non-meat eaters should compete in a cooking competition. Now, hosts Colin Fassnidge and Manu Feildel are weighing in.
At Ted and Sheridan’s instant restaurant, Zoe explains that while she’d taste everything else, when there’s meat in elements of a dish, her MKR teammate Zac would be tasting and judging those elements on her behalf.
Original contestants Angus and Simon and Alisha and Deanne were not impressed that one of the Gatecrashers wouldn’t be tasting everything on their plates, and they make their thoughts very clear to newcomers Zoe and Zac.
“Usually people do not care that I’m a pescatarian,” Zoe said in the episode. “So I feel like they’re overreacting a bit tonight.”
According to Sheridan, who was the first Gatecrasher to host their Instant Restaurant with her son, Ted, it was a bit “confronting” to see Zoe’s plate of uneaten food.
“It was a little bit like, ‘What’s the point of being down in the kitchen, slogging away, if people are not going to eat it?’” Sheridan tells TV WEEK.
“It was a little bit like, ‘What is going on?’ That was a lot. We obviously had no clue that she was pescatarian so that were was nothing that we could do about that at that point in time. We didn’t know.”
While the OG contestants were not happy with Zoe’s admission, judge Colin Fassnidge says he doesn’t care how people eat in their spare time, as long as they taste the dishes.
“In years before we’ve had healthy people who won’t eat this, we’ve had pescatarians who don’t eat meat… so I mean, I just want people just to taste the food,” Colin explains.
“I don’t care if you eat it or not, that’s your problem, you can go hungry, but I want it taken seriously, that you taste it and then you give the proper feedback. You show the respect to the people that cooked it. That’s all I want.”
Colin’s perspective seems to have shifted slightly since Zoe appeared on the show.
“I think in the world we live in, vegetarianism and religions, it provides a true spanner in the works and I quite like spanners in the works. That’s life,” Colin told TV WEEK during the 2025 season of MKR.
“The world is made of all different people, it doesn’t mean that some people should be selected on the show and some should not,” added Manu.
“Everyone should be part of the competition.”
Whether you agree with vegetarians and pescatarians taking their seat at the My Kitchen Rules dinner table, I think we can all agree Zoe’s pescatarian diet has certainly added a new layer of drama to this year’s MKR kitchen.
You can watch My Kitchen Rules on Seven or 7Plus.
