The meat-master has a point.

My Kitchen Rules 2025 (MKR) couple Rielli and Michael shocked Australia by serving a fine-dining dish consisting of buttered beef tongue and cabbage during their Instant Restaurant cook. However, two contestants were particularly irked — Mel and her vegetarian cousin Jacinta. Mel made comments about how she was “gagging” and “throwing up” when eating the dish, and Jacinta refused to touch the beef tongue.

Rielli and Michael tell Chattr they never expected to be cooking for “picky eaters” on a cooking show, and they believe Jacinta shouldn’t be competing on MKR.

“I do not think that vegetarians or vegans should be on MKR. I think that if they want to go on a cooking show, they should make MKR Vegetarian,” Michael explains. “This will sound crazy, but when I was growing up, I actually experimented with a lot of diets and I was vegetarian and I was also vegan, and then I just realised that I love meat, and meat [is] good for you.

“I’ve got the most utmost respect for anyone trying any diet out there. I just feel like, on a cooking competition, you should be trying the food that the people put their blood, sweat and tears into to prepare.”

Rielli agrees, and adds it can be “disheartening” when you spend hours cooking in the kitchen only to see fellow contestants not touching the final dish.

“Whether we want to admit it or not, it’s a cooking show, and if we’re not all eating the same thing, ultimately it’s not fair,” Rielli says. “I feel like there should be another version of MKR where it’s like MKR Vegetarian or MKR Vegan.”
Michael and Rielli’s Instant Restaurant. Image: Seven

Did Michael and Rielli expect backlash for their buttered beef tongue?

Michael and Rielli didn’t score well for their buttered beef tongue. While Michael cooked the cut of meat perfectly, it was lacking in flavour and depth, without any sauce. Nobody at the table enjoyed the dish, but Lol and Lil found it particularly hard to stomach.

This hit Michael and Rielli hard, because they had spent hours cooking for their Instant Restaurant challenge.

“I did not expect the backlash. I mean, we’re on a cooking show. I expected everyone on the show to be able to eat all foods. I didn’t think that I would have picky eaters on the show,” Michael tells us.

“Being a foodie myself, I absolutely love trying all different types of foods, and I always keep my mind open. But to have people going, ‘ew’, it was just really disheartening to see.”

Rielli admits that the pair thought about pairing the beef tongue with a sauce, but the couple were worried they would be accused of trying to hide the tongue amongst heavy flavours.

“If I put sauce [on] it, people would be like, ‘Oh, I couldn’t even taste the tongue’. I feel like we were damned if we did, damned if we don’t,” Rielli says. “I was [also] putting a lot of pressure on us to strive for perfection, and I feel like that really affected us and put me in a really bad mindset.”

The couple are the lowest on the MKR leaderboard at this stage, with a total of 65 out of 100. However, there are still three duos who are yet to cook in the Instant Restaurant challenge, so Michael and Rielli might still make it through this round.