Looking forward to some new kitchen rules

Inspired by 10 years of MKR, Watch Editor Lisa Woolford’s looking forward to some new kitchen rules

CELEBRATIONS: Manu Feildel and Pete Evans celebrate 10 years of Seven's My Kitchen Rules Picture: TIM HUNTER.

IN GOOD news, there’s eight or so more sleeps ‘til school goes back. In bad news there’s still eight more days of “I’m bored, I’m hungry! What is there to eat?”

Inspired by social media posts suggesting leaving lists of jobs for your teenage children to do before you’ll give them that day’s password for the wifi, I thought I’d give it a go with my teens. The only glitch in my cunning plan – I’m not really sure how to change the password each day. I’d ask my girls to teach me but that would probably defeat the purpose. One such task was preparing dinner – much to the eldest one’s disgust, who retorted “but that’s your job”.

I remember the days, when inspired by My Kitchen Rules and MasterChef, they’d want to cook me three-course meals in their own instant restaurants. And they’re certainly no orphans there, Watch cover boy Pete Evans tells me he’s often stopped on the street by parents eager to show the MKR judge pictures of their own kids’ creations.

“It’s very cool to be associated with My Kitchen Rules and see the flow-on effects for the younger generation,” he says. “That’s one of the reasons I love doing the show is that younger generation coming though and their awareness and education about food is so much more pronounced than mine was as a child.”

Like the celebrity chef says he only had Bernard King and Peter (G’day) Russell (G’day) Clarke (hope you sang that like I did).

We’ve certainly had our share of My Kitchen Rules/Masterchef style three-course cook-offs ... occasionally when the pantry was somewhat bare it might only involve two-minute noodles and cheese and crackers ... but the plating up was always on point.

I’ve learnt just a few things along the way ...

When holding cooking contests, the judge must make sure that everyone gets a good mention. Perhaps She Who Must Always be Right has a fabulous main while She Who Wears Her Heart On Her Sleeve (and easily loses it when she, well, loses) has shown artistic flair with her plating up. While sadly there isn’t a big bikky prize of $250,000, stakes — and emotions — are high, so usually the scores are tied, resulting in an equal awarding of the title.

The mess will extend from one end of the kitchen to the other. The enthusiasm for cleaning up is inversely proportional to the enthusiasm for the planning and creating of the extravaganza. Pots and pans and baking trays are left with gleeful abandon — usually for the judge (and by judge I mean me) to clean up.

And last, but not least, chocolate chips for bikkies rarely survive long enough to be baked into sweet treats.

All that said, much to my surprise, I returned home the other evening to a gourmet toasted sandwich, lovingly devised and cooked by my children. So it seems I am, ever so slowly, edging closer to the day when I can partially retire my hold on the kitchen and hand over the aprons to my darlings.