Any aspiring chef would love to whip up a meal and cook at Kitchen HQ on My Kitchen Rules, but have you ever wondered where it is?
Teams from all over Australia fly in to represent their state and unlike shows like The Bachelor (where they all live in one mansion), the contestants are jumping between instant restaurants, Kitchen HQ and everywhere in between for challenges. And we mean everywhere!
Past contestants have cooked up dishes in locations ranging from market places, to the beach, to even a rodeo.
We’ve pieced together the evidence to see where exactly MKR is filmed.
Manu Feildel and Nigella Lawson will co-judge the 2022 season of MKR.
(Image: Seven)Where is Kitchen HQ?
Kitchen HQ is the MKR version of the Bachelor mansion. It’s where the teams come together for sudden death challenges and, of course, that nail-biting finale when the winners are announced.
But it turns out, the location is top secret.
When Now To Love reached out to Channel Seven, the only detail that was divulged is that it is in Sydney, NSW but thanks to some forums set up by fans of the show, it’s been revealed that the Kitchen HQ that we’ve all come to know and love these past 10 years is located in the Sydney inner west suburb of Surry Hills.
In the Media Spy forum, one fan wrote in 2016, “I was at Sydney last year and went to Surry Hills to see it for myself. It is the local office for Paramount Pictures and Seven is paying the property owners to use it as the facade for Kitchen HQ. I know the real one is in Redfern close to Carriageworks.”
Sydneysiders, you may get a free meal if you swing by!
The MKR Kitchen HQ in all it’s glory can be found in Sydney.
(Image: Pinterest)Where are all the instant restaurants?
For the most part, the instant restaurants are filmed in the contestants’ actual homes. Yes, that really means all the teams have to fly around the country for a heap of three-course dinners.
But there are some exceptions.
“There are a lot of teams who have smaller houses or have units that aren’t suitable for instant restaurants,” season four winner Steph Mulheron told Mamamia.
“You’ve got three or four cameras in front of you, lights, there’s about 50 staff behind the scenes, a food team running around, so you need a large space.”
If the team’s house is too small to fit everyone in, the producers ask if they can borrow a friend or family member’s larger place for the night.
During the 2018 season, the show had an “elimination house” that judges Pete Evans and Manu Feildel called home when the instant restaurants were in action.
The property is called Longuevue and can be found on Ascot Road, Kenthurst, in the Sydney Hills district. And it’s also featured on shows like Beauty And The Geek and The Bachelorette.
“Channel Seven want to do the program again here because they have had such great feedback,” the house’s owner Norma Needham told news.com.au.
“A lot of people from the area has told me how proud and excited they are that it was being filmed here — that it came here to us here in The Hills.”
It’ll cost you $1500 a day to film on the property, but Ms Needham says she has never had any issues with production crews.
The 2018 MKR “elimination house” is in Sydney’s Hills district.
(Image: Facebook)Where are the challenges filmed?
Seeing as the elimination cook-offs that occur every week take place in Sydney, the Channel Seven budget probably isn’t big enough to have weekly challenges in different states.
NSW locals have noticed that challenges tend to take place in and around Sydney, from the northern beaches when they’ve cooked for hungry lifesavers on Newport Beach, to Bankstown Public School in the south west, when they made kid-friendly dishes for the students.
However, there have been challenges outside the NSW capital, including at the Flemington racecourse, where the season four contestants cooked for celebrities in the exclusive Birdcage at the Melbourne Cup, to the Western Australian beaches of Broome.
In May 2022, MKR‘s newest judge Nigella Lawson joined returning judge Manu Feildel as they filmed scenes at the Sydney Opera House – hinting one of the challenges will take place in the heart of Sydney Harbour.
Manu and Nigella were photographed while surrounded by contestants and crew as they shot scenes for the upcoming season.
Eventual winners Dan and Steph at the Melbourne Cup challenge in season four.
(Image: Instagram)Cooking up a storm! Check out these stories for more about MKR 2022
Back and bigger than ever! Meet the 2022 MKR contestants hoping to impress Manu and Nigella
Is My Kitchen Rules fake or real? Former contestants set the record straight
The shocking amount of money My Kitchen Rules contestants actually get paid
My Kitchen Rules: All the couples who have hooked up on set
Two years after parting ways with My Kitchen Rules, Pete Evans’ new life continues to fascinate
Nigella Lawson’s complicated relationship history is full of heartbreak and resilience
