With $100,000 up for grabs, Family Food Fight is fast becoming more than just a friendly cooking competition.
And if there’s one team who is feeling the pressure, it’s the Alatini family’s Trish and Ocean.
This week, the mother-and-daughter duo’s patience with the Samadi sisters, Ria and Saffa, is quickly wearing thin.
“It’s little wonder they’ve received backlash given their immaturity and some of the stuff they’ve come out with,” Trish, 44, tells TV WEEK.
“There’s no need to be rude and arrogant. If they were my daughters, they’d have one ear!”
Sisters Saffa and Ria are cooking up a storm.
Over the course of the series, viewers have been critical of the Samadi sisters – but it’s their approach to the rules that’s rubbing up the teams the wrong way.
Last week, Ria, 25, and Saffa, 21, refused to cook with tripe − the Pluchinotta family’s “Power Pick” ingredient.
Instead, they made a vegetarian capsicum and jalapeño dish with rice.
“They’re flirting with the rules and getting away with it,” Trish says.
“We’re all about following the rules and having a level playing field. Everyone was busting a gut trying to meet the brief, but they just refused. It was really stressful.”
Ocean and Trish Alatini are losing their patience.
Trish hints that the atmosphere off-camera was just as tense.
“I tried to stay away from the drama,” she says.
“But some of the days were really long, we were all confined… you were able to see some of the contestants’ true essence. It was unnerving.”
Trish thinks things seemed more wholesome on last year’s series of Family Food Fight.
“We want to represent the Kiwi and Pacific Island culture on Australian TV,” she says.
“But it just gets brushed aside because of all the drama. We’re there to cook – we don’t do tantrums in our family!”
