Flirting Accusations & Blindfolds: The Wildest Moments From The MKR Instant Restaurants

We're two weeks into My Kitchen Rules 2023 and this season has already provided us with plenty of drama, kitchen mishaps and emotionally charged moments.

Over the past two weeks, we've seen the first round of contestants host their Instant Restaurants to varying degrees of success.

We've also seen flirting, and feuds, and...blindfolds.

Here are the wildest moments from the My Kitchen Rules Instant Restaurants (so far):

The season started off with a bang when friends Coco and Pearls flirted with fellow contestant Claudean's husband, Anthony, during the first Instant Restaurant.

"Have you heard before you look like George Clooney? Claim it, own it," Coco said to Anthony before Claudean told her to "stop flirting with him".

Claudean later told the cameras she will probably "be the most hated woman in Australia" for her comment.

"The Barbie twins really got up my schnoz. I am very direct; I just say it like it is. I think I'm going to be the most hated woman in Australia," she said.

Coco and Pearls later admitted to the camera that they were thrown by Claudean's comment.

"She had an attitude, yeah. Just weird vibes from her, to be honest," Coco said. 

"She knows she's got a sexy husband right next to her," Pearls added.

NSW friends Coco and Pearls introduced a 'twist' at their Instant Restaurant, when they announced they were going to blindfold the judges and the other contestants before they ate their dessert.

“Before you dig in, please hold off,” Coco said to the judges. “We have a little surprise for you. We’re going to do it a little bit different this time. We’re going to blindfold you.”

“So you can really experience the different flavours. We know how everyone likes to close their eyes and really feel the food and all those elements, and we want you to have that in this dish.”

The judges and the other contestants were thrown off by the concept of being blindfolded while trying to eat.

“There’s a first time for everything, I suppose,” Manu said.

“It was a very Coco and Pearls moment — very glamorous, a little bit raunchy, a little bit sexy, a little bit 50 Shades," said WA contestant Rach.

“The blindfold was just weird to me,” Claudean added. “I am super confused. Fifty shades of confusion.”

We almost had another MKR romance on our hands!

During one Instant Restaurant, the contestants decided to go around the table and list their 'sweetest moment of the day'.

When it was Nick's turn, he said that the sweetest moment of his day was realising that fellow contestants Rach and Tommy were just friends.

"My sweet is realising that these two aren't a couple," he said.

"Because he's a single guy!" Anthony added from the other side of the table.

When Claudean asked him which one he 'liked', Nick responded "I think Rachel's quite attractive".

"Sometimes I can't help myself, I love love at the end of the day," he later said to the camera.

But it seems that Rach doesn't feel the same way, as she later told the table, "I'm not here for dating, I'm here for cooking".

Barbecue besties Aaron and Chris were the first 'Gatecrashers' to host their Instant Restaurant and they received some, um, interesting advice from judge Colin Fassnidge.

After critiquing their entree, Fassnidge headed into the kitchen to see how they were going with the main dish.

Aaron and Chris explained they were serving barbecued pork neck and showed Fassnidge a piece of the pork which had been cooked. The MKR judge then told the friends they needed to 'lubricate' it.

"Now see the way the middle is beautiful and the outside is a bit burnt?" he said.

"Yeah in our world, we sort of call this 'bark'," Chris explained. "They still can't be dry but they should be a little bit more—"

"You would mix that with a lubricant to wet it, yeah?" Fassnidge interjected.

"So that's Colin's handy hint for tonight — make sure we have enough lubricant in the dish, otherwise you're going to get the same chat as we had before," he continued, before leaving the kitchen and returning to the Instant Restaurant table.