AN entree of zucchini and potato rosti stack was the shining light as Mount Isa's My Kitchen Rules contestants Sharon Sellings and Jacqui Bakhash opened the cooking on the prime-time reality TV show on Monday night.
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The pair posted a score of 59 as they hosted contestants and judges in Mount Isa at their instant restaurant 'Stack'.
Five more teams will cook as the show heads to Perth for the next instant restaurant. The team with the lowest score after the five teams have cooked, will be eliminated.
The five teams gave Jac and Shaz a combined scored of 28 out of 50 for their three-course meal.
The dessert was easily the hit of the night. But it was downhill from there, with the main course of lamb rack, and then the finishing apple and walnut crumble dessert, proving largely unpopular. The blue cheese in the dessert left the contestants and judges baffled.
"That's actually not bad," Shaz said after hearing the contestants' verdict.
"I think they've scored middle of the road."
The pair will talk about their MKR cooking experience on Sunrise from 6am tomorrow.
MKR judges Pete and Manu's verdict
ENTREE
Manu: "Beautiful and crunchy." - Score - 8
Pete: "Loved the presentation, crispy, luscious, creamy. Almost the perfect dish. - Score 8
MAIN COURSE
Manu: "I was disappointed with the main course. The lamb was cooked well but there was too much fat, and the potatoes were under-cooked." - Score 4
Pete: "The flesh of the lamb was cooked beautifully, but it needed more rendering of the fat. The sauce was on right track." - Score 5
DESSERT
Manu: "The cheese was a surprise." - Score 3
Pete: "The gorgonzola (blue cheese).. I love it as a cheese but in this preparation it didn't work." - Score 3
The girls were disappointed with their finish but vowed to improve if given a second chance.
"I cant believe first cook and we get a three," Jac lamented.
Shaz said: "it just hasn't gone out way tonight... we had issues, its not as easy as it looks."
"That was like a practice run."
Pete admitted it wouldn't be hard cooking "first cab off the rank".
It's all up to the girls' dessert - pear and walnut crumble.
"It looks beautiful," one contestant comments.
But it appears adding blue cheese to the dish isn't popular among the contestants.
"Cheese, walnut and pears - a marriage in heaven," Manu said.
But the dominating flavor of the cheese isn't popular with MKR judges Manu or Pete.
"Don't try to be too inventive - because I'd hate for this to the reason you went home," Pete says.
The blue cheese has taken over the dish - with the smell and taste overbearing for contestants.
Now comes the moment of truth, with judges and contestans delivering their scores for Jac and Shaz.
After nailing the entree, the Isa girls main course has dipped in quality.
There was one contestant who"really enjoyed the dish" but the general consensus wasn't positive.
"I'm quite disappointed," MKR judge Manu said.
"I think you struggled with the lamb."
Shaz admitted: "This is food we cook all the time, this is not us, it's just gone bad."
The saving grace is the lamb, judge Pete conceded.
"It's beautiful and pink and melting in the mouth," he said.
"One great dish, one not so good."
THERE'S tension as Jac and Shaz serve their main course at the 'Stack'.
"Oh my god it's a feed and a half," Shaz describes the main course.
"Nobody is going home hungry," Jac says.
But the pair are far from happy.
"It's too Sunday Roast'," the pair agree.
"It's not a competition dish."
"Big portion," Manu says as he looks at his lamb rack, with crushed potato and lemon-green beans.
"Mining size," Shaz replies.
As the girls prepare dinner, native Texan Robert, who has called Australia home for 23 years, would much prefer to catch or hunt his own dinner himself.
He's right at home in Mount Isa as he tells stories of bulls.
"Mount Isa should be proud."
That was summation from My Kitchen Rules judge Pete after tasting the Mount Isa girls' entree.
Jac and Shaz produced their zucchini and potato rosti stack, with lamb rack with crushed potato and lemon-green bean uo next for main course.
The pair admitted pressure, but it didn't show in the entree, according to MKR judge Pete.
"I loved it, I honestly did, first course, first dish of the competition. Yes it's simple, but it works," Pete said.
"This is what we're looking for. Great flavour combinations. Mount Isa should be proud."
"I loved the layers, it looked amazing," fellow judge Manu said.
But it didn't meet the expectations of the toffy Melbourne pair who said they wouldn't order it in a restaurant and conceded they weren't scared of their Mount Isa opponents.
Next up, main course.
Jac and Shaz are in the kitchen with the menu revealed.
"It's good, honest, humble food," one contestant commented.
For entree, it's zucchini and potato rosti stack, with lamb rack with crushed potato and lemon-green bean for main course.
Dessert, one of the dishes the ladies have admitted might not be their best, is pear and walnut crumble.
'Yummy, thankyou ladies," said one contestant after seeing the menu.
"It's a very simple and safe menu," another contestant critiqued.
EARLIER: Mount Isans were been glued to television sets across the city as the pair put their culinary efforts on the table at their instant restaurant 'Stack'.
The pair have played on the city's mining culture by naming their restaurant 'stack'.
Driving down the Barkly Highway in and out of the city, the pair swung past Sunset Butchery to pick up the lamb for their main course.
Set on the dusty red dirt, the pair cook at a property at Breakaway after picking up groceries in Coles Mount Isa.
The introduction to Mount Isa shows Mount Isa Courthouse, where Sharon works, and Oasis Fashion where Jacqui is co-owner.
"We're walking down a deserted country road in cattle country... Yeeha!" one contestant said as they travelled up to their instant restaurant.
Their restaurant 'Stack' is full of rustic, outback-themed decorations, including miners' hats to play on the mining culture of the city.
