Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge reveal reason why they ‘hated’ each other

TV chefs Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge have finally shed details on their past feud, as they reveal the reason why they “hated each other’s guts”.

Colin Fassnidge and Manu Feildel have finally opened up about their long-running, bitter feud.

The celebrity chefs, who are co-judges on Seven’s My Kitchen Rules, lifted the lid on their rivalry on Wednesday night’s show, as they explained why they previously “hated” one another.

Speaking to MKR contestants at the dinner table for Amber and Mel’s home restaurant, French cook Feildel let the group in on their past problems.

“Colin and I started on the wrong foot,” began Feildel, who has hosted the cooking show since its debut in 2010 alongside former judge Pete Evans. “Because when I started TV, most chefs in the industry thought I’d sold my soul.”

“I said he’d sold out,” added Fassnidge.

“They said I was no longer a chef, I was a TV celebrity,” Feildel continued.

Feildel opened up about their secret bitter feud.

Fassnidge later admitted to being an “a**hole”.

Feildel said he was horrified when Irish chef Fassnidge was announced as a guest judge on MKR, which happened in 2013.

“I got told, ‘Oh we’re going to bring in a new chef, Colin Fassnidge.’ And I went, ‘What?! The guy hates my guts and I hate his guts’,” Feildel said.

Fassnidge chimed in, “So day one of MKR, I turn up and they’re like ‘Have you met Manu?’ And I was like, ‘s**t’.

“We did the season. It was a tough learning curve for me.”

The duo decided it was time to bury the hatchet after wrapping shooting, with Fassnidge being the first to break the ice.

“So we finished the show, I went into my room, he went into his. And suddenly I heard [knocks ], open my room and he went ‘I would like to apologise for being an a***hole’,” Feildel remembered. “And we’ve been good friends ever since!”

British home chef Nigella Lawson co-starred alongside Feildel last year, while Fassnidge became a main judge for the first time for this year’s season, which premiered earlier this month.

The pair are now good mates.

Years ago, it was Fassnidge who first triggered the war of words, after making brutal comments about Feildel’s 2011 win on Seven’s Dancing With The Stars.

“If I did do a show it would be a good show. If you do these things it’s got to be on your own terms and not be (made to look) a fool, like making you wear a clown suit and dance around a studio,” Fassnidge said to The Sunday Telegraph at the time.

“Look, I don’t knock your man Manu, but he’s not going to go back in the kitchen again … And that’s fine, he’s changed careers.

“He’s going to make a lot of money out of that, but don’t go back and say you’re a full-time chef.”

Feildel and Fassnidge are main judges on this season of MKR. Picture: Channel 7

Speaking to news.com.au when Fassnidge joined MKR, Feildel said he quickly realised they’d need to settle the score.

“When I got told he (Fassnidge) was going to join the team I was a bit like, ‘Whoa’ … Then I just said to myself, ‘Maybe it’s a sign, what the heck, we’re going to work together, let’s make the best of it’,” Feildel said in 2015.

“Since we’ve worked together we realise we’ve got a lot in common … He’s a great guy and I’m happy things have changed between us because there’s no need to be like this (feuding).”

Fassnidge later referenced the pair’s previous problems while starring on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! in 2021, where he revealed he also didn’t get along with another famous chef, Miguel Maestre.

“Me and Miguel didn’t get on, me and Manu didn’t get on,” he told camp mate Grant Denyer.

“I don’t know. We just never stopped fighting.”

Originally published as Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge reveal reason why they ‘hated’ each other