My Kitchen Rules AU S04E01 WS PDTV XviD BF1 avi

My Kitchen Rules Australia Series 4 Episode 1

When Australia's favourite home-cooking show returns for its fourth series in 2013, the table will be set for a few extra guests.

Welcoming a new judge along with blind taste testing for the first time, the biggest shock for audiences will be seeing who's crashing the My Kitchen Rules dinner parties. Who do you think it could be?

One thing is certain: there are plenty of surprises in store when My Kitchen Rules launches in 2013.

Manu Feildel and Pete Evans return to host and judge the ultimate home-cooking battle as they accept dinner party invites in each state across the country.

This series they welcome new guest judge Colin Fassnidge to the table alongside returning guest judges Guy Grossi, Karen Martini and Liz Egan.

It's state versus state, plate against plate, as teams of two attempt to out-dine and out-wine each other to see whose kitchen rules.

Each team will take turns to transform an ordinary home into an instant restaurant for one pressure cooker night. They'll serve up a three course menu designed to impress not only their fellow contestants but our esteemed judges.

There will be triumphs, kitchen fires, laughter, tears and plenty of opinionated guests as they battle the clock and their nerves to plate up on time.

The top two teams will again battle it out in the grand final where they will present their ultimate dining menu to a full restaurant.

With $250,000 in prize money on offer, the knives will definitely be out.

Group 1 - Kerrie and Craig - Childhood sweethearts

For nearly 40 years, they've been the apple of each other's eye. But Craig endured six years of unrequited love before Kerrie finally noticed him.

Mind you, Craig was the ripe old age of eight when he fell for Kerrie - the new kid at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, Sunbury - at first sight. Craig saw her in the schoolyard, turned to his friends and said, "I'm going to marry that girl."

It wasn't until six years later in the summer of 1975 that they started going out. But Craig, 52, and Kerrie, 53, have been together ever since. They got married in 1981 and have four kids, aged 29-23 and two grandkids.

Kerrie says she and Craig started cooking together as teens. "Our parents were meat and three veg, lots of lamb in those days, so we were inventive and would just make up stuff."

"Once Kerrie got her license we started going to restaurants downtown and tasting new foods and getting excited about it," adds Craig, who recently left his family's meat processing business to enjoy "a gap year".

That interest in food saw them determined to have a family of good eaters. "We had little kids from an early age. So we did cook a lot but we cooked interesting things. And our kids are grateful for that because they have good palates. Not like we had. If we did go out, as little kids they were great to take, because they tried everything."

Now, every special occasion they go somewhere new and special. And they travel regularly, having happily eaten their way across countries such as France, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Turkey and Morocco. "We book the first night and the first flight, nothing more," says Craig. "We're not big planners."

When it comes to cooking, however, Kerrie admits to being very organised.

"That's the only way I can operate in the kitchen," she says. "I'm the boss and Craig does what he's told, pretty much. Craig helps me prepare. I like everything prepared and ΓÇ¿I normally have a running list. With dinner parties I work it backwards from when we're going to sit down. We have lots of parties and I always have a running sheet. I organise my life that way. I'm just organised."
In contrast, Craig admits: "I'm just a nutcase in the kitchen. I throw things around the place. But I make a great Sunday brunch while Kerrie stays in bed. That's the day she's not allowed in the kitchen."