My Kitchen Rules 2016 Season 7 Episode 12

The gloves are out in group two's last instant restaurant, served up by controversial best friends Jessica and Marcos. They'll need to cook up perfect dishes if they want to avoid low scores.
Jessica and Marcos VIC
We have the same kind of food philosophy.
is to thank for Jessica and Marcos following their food dream and applying for MKR. Childhood friends, they lost touch after Jessica, 30, moved. But these old Sydney school friends reconnected online and discovered their shared love of healthy eating after Marcos, 29, also migrated to Melbourne. Now they’re ready to rattle the competition with their raw and nutritious menus.
So how did you find reconnecting after so many years?
Marcos: The friendship picked up where we left off and we realised we were into some of the same things: good eating, exercise, keeping healthy, cars.
Tell us about your shared interest of food and eating out.
Jessica: We realised we both were into the same kinds of food and healthy eating. If you’ve got options of brown rice or white rice, we’re always on the brown rice if any rice at all. Then we started cooking together and we were a pretty good team in the kitchen; we have the same kind of food philosophy.
Marcos: It started with Jessica who would cook for me. Jessica’s very particular with how she works and what she does and she’s very good at it. It probably takes a little bit for her to let anybody in her kitchen and eventually I said, “I’m ok in the kitchen, I have some knife skills and I know a little bit about food, can we cook together?” It took her a little while and she let me in and then we just started cooking together.
Jessica: Over the years we now have a little group of friends and we have dinner parties together. We feed everyone and it’s good fun.
Who taught you to cook?
Jessica: I taught myself. As a teenager I didn’t want to eat meat and eggs. My dad always wanted meat and vegetables - there was always potato on the table; if you don’t feed a Polish person potato and cabbage, watch out. So I started cooking for myself from about the age of 13.
Marcos: The internet taught me how to cook, I am a YouTube enthusiast! I will watch five videos on how to cook pork belly and then I’ll throw my own little twist into the different methods I’ve watched and I’ll make up my own one from there.
What kind of food will you be dishing up?
Marcos: We basically try to balance everything out and cook something that pleases everyone but that is also pretty damn good for you.
Do you have a signature dish?
Marcos: We’re very diverse - we go from Asian to Italian, but my favourite is a seared tuna with black sesame on top and a nice Asian salad and pickled ginger.
Jessica: We like really fresh, clean food in their natural state. We make some vegan cheese cakes and raw tarts: the food is raw and all of the nutrients are there, nothing has been cooked away. Marcos: We just steer away from the nasties: butter, fat, meat fats, sugar. We don’t completely cancel it out, we just steer away from it most of the time.
How does cooking make you feel?
Marcos: I love cooking my own food because I know what’s gone into it and I’m guilt free when I eat it.
Jessica: Cooking is my life. When I’m finished cooking I’m thinking about what I’m going to cook next, what’s in the fridge, what do I have pickled. I’ve been falling asleep on the couch after a really long day at work and I have ingredients in the fridge and I couldn’t sleep, I had to get up and cook something I had in my head. I lose sleep over food.
Sounds like Jessica is definitely your head chef...
Marcos: Jessica is definitely a lot more experienced than I am. I’m really comfortable being sous chef and I like a bit of direction especially when it’s someone I look up to. She can be bossy at times; she’s really direct and knows what she wants.
Jessica: I think if it was someone I didn’t care about as much I’d probably just be barking orders, but because I care about Marcos I’ll try and soften it a little bit but I’m very direct, I’m very honest and I’m very forward. You’ll always know where you stand with me. I don’t understand why people don’t value honesty. Honesty makes a lot of people uncomfortable.
Do you want a career change after this?
Jessica: I would like to study patisserie. I think we can all think that we are great and we know everything but unless you’ve learnt the industry way from the beginning ... I think to get a job you need certificates and certain qualifications