The My Kitchen Rules 2026 competition has barely welcomed its gatecrashers, but a new rivalry is already brewing. And this time, it’s not about a dodgy dish or a judge’s score.
After Jane and Shane became the first team eliminated, Round Two kicked off with some fresh faces ready to shake things up. First up were mother-and-son duo Sheridan and Ted, who served their entree to the other contestants on Tuesday night.
But while everyone was meant to be judging the food, the conversation quickly turned to “sassy friends” Zoe and Zac, who had arrived alongside the other newcomers. When Zoe revealed she was a pescetarian and didn’t touch her entree, the table had plenty to say about it.
Cue the interrogation.
Angus kept bringing up Zoe’s diet, while Alisha and Deanne also questioned how she could judge dishes she couldn’t eat. Some contestants even suggested she could be more difficult to cook for than Jane, who famously called herself a “taster, not an eater”.
And just like that, Zoe’s dinner choices became the main course of conversation.
Speaking to WHO, Zoe and Zac admitted they expected a few questions about her diet. What they didn’t expect was for it to become such a big deal, especially when it’s something they barely think twice about in everyday life.
‘It was made into a bigger issue than it really was’
Zoe wasn’t expecting everyone to simply shrug and move on when she revealed she was pescetarian. After last season’s discussions around a vegetarian contestant, she knew there might be a few questions. Still, she thought the teams might be a little more used to it by now.
“I was expecting a strong reaction because of what happened last year,” Zoe told WHO. “But at the same time, because there was a vegetarian last year, I thought it would be a bit more normalised around the table.”
Zac felt the whole thing quickly became more of a drama than it needed to be.
“It just kind of was made into a bigger issue than it really was,” he said.
The pair thought the topic might come up over the first couple of Instant Restaurants before everyone got on with the competition. Instead, Zoe’s diet kept making its way back into the conversation.
“We thought that it would have been a bit of contention for the first maybe one or two Instant Restaurants,” they explained. “But for it to be a point of contention the entire time we continue in the show, that was really surprising to us.”
So, a question or two at the dinner table? Fair enough. But apparently, this was one conversation that just wouldn’t leave the table.
‘Some people said they want to force meat in my mouth‘
As if the dinner-table debate wasn’t enough, Zoe said some of the comments she received were far more extreme than she ever expected.
“Some people said they want to force meat in my mouth and had some quite outrageous comments to say for something that is considered so normal,” she said.
We’re sorry, force meat into her mouth? That’s certainly one way to react to someone else’s dinner order.
Zoe said being pescetarian is completely normal in her everyday life, which made the fuss all the more baffling. It wasn’t something she expected to become such a big talking point, let alone attract comments like those.
She also had a pretty simple response to the suggestion that her diet would make things harder for the other teams. When contestants cook for Zoe and Zac, they only need to impress Zac with the dishes Zoe can’t eat.
In other words, there’s still someone at the table ready to taste the food. It’s not exactly a culinary crisis.
Zoe and Zac are now settling into the competition, but their arrival has already given the original teams something new to chew over. And if this is the reaction to one dietary preference, we have a feeling Round Two won’t be short on dinner-table drama.
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