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Mother and son duo, Sheridan and Ted were the first team to cook in the second round of the Instant Restaurant. Their theme was golf and garden, called The Garden Club. As gatecrashers, they were ready to score a hole in one!

For the entree, they made chicken liver parfait with milk bread and red wine gel. “I loved the way you plated it and I loved the gel because it brings a little bit of acidity and sweetness,” Manu said. “The parfait isn’t perfect; the texture is delicious but the salt is missing and when the salt is missing in a dish, the flavour is not there.”

For main, they served beef cheeks with gruyere mash, confit carrots and gremolata. “The beef cheek was soft to the spoon, which is what you want. Salt is your major problem at the minute, ti would’ve changed the entire dish,” Colin said.

For dessert, they served black sesame mochi with dark chocolate ice cream. “Finally we found our stride on this one. The ice cream it’s as good as we could make. It was rich, luscious, sweet, bitter all at the same time. Happily buy a tub of it,” Colin said. “I think there was far too much mochi on the plate… but great flavour of sesame seeds. That ice cream really made a big bang on the plate,” Manu said.

Overall Score: 69/110

Judges Breakdown:

• Entree: Manu = 7, Colin = 6
• Main: Manu = 7, Colin = 6
• Dessert: Manu = 7, Colin = 8
• Total Judges: 41/60

Guest team score: 28/50

Loved-up couple Tiffany and Giancarlo were the fourth team to cook in the first round of the Instant Restaurant. Their restaurant was Italian themed, called Ciao Bella Ciao, and they put their money where their mouth is, serving up an almost perfect menu. But one course let them down.

For the entree, they made parmigiana di melanzane and it was a great start. “The eggplant was cooked perfectly with perfect little layers and different fillings and flavours,” Manu said. “Beautifully cooked and delicious.”

For main, they served agnolotti di coniglio which is little pasta parcels of rabbit. “A lot of work went into that filling, you braised the rabbit, you picked the rabbit, you mixed it with the potato. Maybe add a little sage or lemon zest. I finished the whole plate and it put a smile on my face,” Colin said.

For dessert, they served sfinci san giuseppe al limone. “Donuts are either good or not great. It’s all about the texture and lightness of them. Unfortunately, it was a little heavy, not light and fluffy – so kind of the opposite of what you want,” Manu said. “The lemon cream, you needed to give it a whack of lemon. You really needed to lift the dessert. It was just too sweet for me,” Colin added.

Overall Score: 86/110

Judges Breakdown:

• Entree: Manu = 9, Colin = 10
• Main: Manu = 9, Colin = 9
• Dessert: Manu = 5, Colin = 5
• Total Judges: 47/60

Guest team score: 39/50

Filipino nurses, Mary and Golden, were the fifth team to cook in the first round of the Instant Restaurant. Their restaurant menu was made up of family recipes, passed down through the generations and it was called Aming Kusina, which means Our Kitchen in Filipino.

For the entree, they made okoy fritters with pepino salad, which is a popular street food that balanced crunchy, savoury deep fried fritters with a cool and refreshing cucumber side. “I think that was a delicious start of the three course meal,” Manu said. “Beautiful fritters, crispy vegetables… I loved the pink sauce.”

For main, they served Cebu lechon belly with pandan rice and atchara, a classic Filipino dish featuring slow-roasted crispy pork belly. “The liver element of the dish – the chicken was a master stroke, I think that really raised the bar of the dish. The little veg salad on the side was nice, the pork crackling – there was definitely crackling, the whole table heard it. We overcooked the pork; we could’ve halved the cooking time. It would’ve been a 10,” Colin said.

For dessert, they served a mango float ice cream sandwich. “I’ve never been to the Philippines and have never come across a milk bun with ice cream in it. Flavours are really yum, ice cream is well made, fresh mango is obviously delicious but the bread is probably a little too dense; it should’ve been a lot softer,” Manu said.

Overall Score: 77/110

Judges Breakdown:

• Entree: Manu = 9, Colin = 10
• Main: Manu = 7, Colin = 6
• Dessert: Manu = 5, Colin = 5
• Total Judges: 42/60

Guest team score: 35/50

Krysten and Lucy were the first team to cook in the MKR Instant Restaurant Round 1. They proved they’re a force to be reckoned with, delivering bold flavours, impressive dishes and a dessert that everyone at the table enjoyed.

For entree, they served beef tartare with quail egg and truffle flatbread. While it looked fantastic and the flavours were a hit, the texture wasn’t quite right. “It went down well. The tartare was beautiful to look at but it was very dry,” Manu said. “The flavour was enjoyable, but the truffle… I would’ve shaved it.”

For the main, they served seafood paella. The seafood was cooked well but it was missing the signature crispiness of traditional paella. “The prawns and mussels were cooked perfectly… but it didn’t have that crust we were looking for,” Colin added.

For dessert, microbakery owner Lucy, assisted by Krysten, made a mango and coconut sweet rice croissant puff. “It was definitely the best dish of the night. That was an amazing job,” Manu said. “I love the sweet crunchy bit on top, that was the best for me. Well done,” Colin added.

Overall Score: 72/110

Judges Breakdown:

• Entree: Manu = 6, Colin = 6
• Main: Manu = 6, Colin = 6
• Dessert: Manu = 8, Colin = 8
• Total Judges: 40/60

Guest team score: 32/50

Angus and Simon were the second team to cook in the MKR Instant Restaurant Round 1. They’re a competitive duo and eager to do everything it takes to win the competition and that starts at their Instant Restaurant named ‘Last Orders’, a cheeky pun nodding to Angus’ job as a funeral director. They claim their food will be “to die for” and are serving pub food with the twist of Asian undertones.

For entree, they served a wagyu sausage roll with caramelised onion chutney and kimchi. Their presentation was fantastic and most teams enjoyed it, while others felt it missed the mark to be serving a sausage roll in a competition of this level. “Pastry, I loved it,” Manu said. “It was buttery, salty, crunchy… I take my hat off to make kimchi tonight. Really strong, pungent, I really enjoyed the flavour – top notch. The issue I’ve got with this dish is the beef. The beef element of the sausage roll let the dish down while everything else was good.”

For the main, they delivered a gochujang chicken parmi with enoki fries and green apple slaw. They had trouble deep-frying the enoki fries, meaning some of them weren’t crispy, and the presentation wasn’t great. But they pulled through. “The chicken was cooked perfectly, it was really juicy,” Manu said. “Cheese oozing out and melting on top with a beautiful crunch… you’ve got things like kimchi which was a slap in the face, the gochujang was a slap in the face. That gochujang has such an amazing, strong flavour that it was missing a little on the plate. If you’re going to put it on the menu, be bold with it, don’t be shy.”

For dessert, they created coconut panna cotta with sesame snap and butterscotch sauce. “I maybe would’ve hit it with double the amount of sesame and maybe some black sesame in there because there’s a lot of sugar going on here,” Colin said. “Your butterscotch sauce could’ve used a bit of salt and acidity. It would’ve lifted that but overall it tasted quite nice.”

Overall Score: 70/110

Judges Breakdown:

• Entree: Manu = 6, Colin = 6
• Main: Manu = 6, Colin = 6
• Dessert: Manu = 7, Colin = 6
• Total Judges: 37/60

Guest team score: 33/50

South Australia’s classy bogans, Alisha and Deanna were the third team to cook in the first round of the Instant Restaurant. Their restaurant theme was ‘Hot Mess’ and they had a lot to prove after being underestimated at the dinner parties. But could their chaotic approach in the kitchen be their undoing?

For the entree, they made seared scallops with burnt butter and cauliflower puree. “The first bite tasted delicious,” Manu said. “All the accompaniments made sense between the capers’ acidity and the puree, which was nice and smooth. Unfortunately for me, the scallops were overcooked.”

For main, they served lamb backstrap with crispy potatoes and salsa verde. “The lamb was cooked really well,” Colin said. “The salsa verde was punchy, the potatoes were crispy. I think if you guys worked on your plating, you would’ve got a higher score. But just to eat it as a plate of food, I really enjoyed your flavours.”

For dessert, they re-created a family recipe of sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce. “A very humble dessert, well done. The sauce on top does the job that it’s supposed to do,” Manu said. “But, you missed an element, something to cut the sweetness which is a cream or a creme freche,” Colin added. “The cake becomes too sweet and that’s a very simple thing that would’ve changed the entire dish.”

Overall Score: 68/110

Judges Breakdown:

• Entree: Manu = 5, Colin = 6
• Main: Manu = 7, Colin = 8
• Dessert: Manu = 7, Colin = 6
• Total Judges: 39/60

Guest team score: 29/50

The most controversial team of the season, Jane and Shane were the final team to cook in the first round of the Instant Restaurant. Their restaurant was called ‘Lyst Haus’ and they talked big game around the dinner table, so they had massive expectations to fill.

For the entree, they made duck chawanmushi, king crab and caviar. “It was the sort of dish I’d expect to see at the grand finale, the way it was plated up. The top of the custard was sweet but underneath something went wrong. I liked the garnish more than the actual dish,” Colin said.

For main, they served master stock pigeon with chilli cucumber samphire and shallot pancake. This one was honestly… terrifying and terrible. “Unfortunately, this pigeon… I can’t even find a positive thing to say about it. I know where you wanted to go with it but you didn’t get there,” Manu said. The teams were shocked, with pigeon claws being plated up and a dish that was dry and crusty.

For dessert, they opted for a savoury dessert which they called tomato sour – and it was the one dish that most of the teams enjoyed. “For two people who don’t like dessert, I think this was your most successful course. I liked the addition of the sweetness of the jam” Colin said.

Having scored the lowest in the first round, Jane and Shane were eliminated from the competition.

Overall Score: 50/110

Judges Breakdown:

• Entree: Manu = 5, Colin = 4
• Main: Manu = 3, Colin = 4
• Dessert: Manu = 7, Colin = 7
• Total Judges: 39/60

Guest team score: 20/50