“My Kitchen Rules” Victorian socialites Ash and Camilla opted for French menu on Sunday, fully confident that they would be serving it to French chef Manu Feildel. The self-professed “food snobs” started off poised in the kitchen, but eventually lost their cool after a few kitchen mishaps.

Naming their Instant Restaurant “Dans La Maison,” the best friends treated Manu, his co-judge Pete Evans, and their guests to a sophisticated and classy night at their Melbourne residence. The girls decided to serve French cuisine, which Manu thought was “ballsy” of them to serve to a French man. Nevertheless, Ash and Camilla were pretty confident that they could pull it off.

Entrée: Steak Tartare with Quail Egg and Crostoli

Kicking off with a bold choice of Steak Tartare for their entrée, Ash and Camilla perhaps discounted the fact that raw meat isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. Pete and Manu had mixed feelings about it, saying the girls got the dish wrong in terms of technique, but the judges still loved what they were served.

Competitive mother-and-daughter team Gina and Anna balked at the entrée, with Anna even comparing the dish to a cat food. Gina, who hated uncooked meat, ended up liking it anyway. Jac and Shaz also weren’t fond of the dish. Jac didn’t taste her plate, though the gracious Mt Isa boutique owner refrained from commenting loudly on it.

At the bottom of the leader board are Kat and Andre, who scored just one point below cousins Jac and Shaz’s 59. After father-and-daughter team Robert and Lynzey’s successful Instant Restaurant run last week, Kat and Andre doubled up their effort to put the remaining teams down. When Annie declared their love for the entrée, Kat noted Annie didn’t even touch her plate. This made Annie cry, which in turn made Kat feel terrible.

Although Kat and Andre appeared contrite after that incident, they were back to their smirking selves whenever the hosts received not-too-positive comments about their dish. As the other teams have noted, the two have become a tad too desperate about their situation.

Main: Bouillabaisse with Rouille and Baguette

Ash had a mini meltdown in the kitchen after wrecking the soup with too much orange zest. They were able to salvage it, though. Again, Ash and Camilla promised traditional French dish but ended up deviating from the French custom. And again, Pete and Manu ended up loving their bouillabaisse anyway.

“You got to be careful what you call things when you cook things,” Manu warned them before complimenting the soup. “I loved it, I absolutely love this dish,” Pete added.

Dessert: Fondant au Chocolat with Hazelnut Ice Cream

The fondant didn’t end up a fondant, and that made their dessert a failure. It was supposed to have a gooey centre, but Ash and Camilla inadvertently botched the method by freezing the fondant longer than necessary. They ended up serving a dry mini cake that almost didn’t have an ounce of ooze in the middle.

It was the judges’ least favourite dish of the night, as it was the guests’. As the teams said, the dessert was a disappointment. Even Annie, who was generous in her praises for the first two dishes, was forthright in saying she didn’t love the dessert.

Scores

The guests mostly gave them an average score that dances between 6 and 7. The combined score was 28, which Ash and Camilla believed was unfair as it was the same as Jac and Shaz. They figured out immediately that someone voted strategically. And they were not wrong. Kat and Andre, still bitter about being in the bottom, gave them a 2.

Pete and Manu surprised the girls when they gave high scores for their main dish. Ash and Camilla knew the judges enjoyed their bouillabaisse, but they didn’t know they loved it so much that they gave it a 10 and 9 respectively. For the entrée, Pete and Manu gave them a reasonable 6 and 7, but for the dessert, they gave very low scores of 3 and 5. Ash and Camilla’s overall score was 68, 20 points higher than last placers Kat and Andre. This meant that they are currently in the second place next to Robert and Lynzey.

Here are the scores given by the other teams:

Robert & Lynzey: 7
Annie & Lloyd: 6
Jac & Shaz: 7
Gina & Anna: 6
Kat & Andre: 2

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