Before Covid, pre-Covid, since last year. These are phrases we’ve been using a lot thanks to the pandemic (along with words like “unprecedented”, “lockdown”, and “face masks”), while South Africans also found “Oom Cyril”, “when you zol”, and “family meeting” making their way into our vocabulary. The long-winded point we’re trying to make is that Covid has changed a lot of things and that includes the way the third season of My Kitchen Rules SA was filmed.

Due to Covid protocols, the season was filmed in a production bubble, which means the playing field has been levelled. This season all ten teams are cooking in the same kitchen! Instead of hopping from home to home, we’ll see them all in the #MKRSA kitchen. There are ten very different teams coming to the table, all bringing their own tastes, style, flavour, and flair and we can’t wait to see what they have to offer.

You’ll also see masks this season as the teams head to the shops, which by now is a familiar sight, but certainly wouldn’t have been in previous seasons. And did we mention quarantine? Teams had to quarantine before filming began, away from their families.

Some things remain the same, of course: like our esteemed judges David Higgs and J’Something. They’re back to critique the teams on presentation, flavour, and creativity – all while maintaining those daunting poker faces. As before, the first episodes will consist of Instant Restaurants, in which each team gets a chance to host and cook a three-course meal which will be scored by the judges and the guest teams – all in the hopes of walking away with R1 million and the winning title.

My Kitchen Rules SA airs every Sunday at 18:00 on M-Net channel 101.
Follow the conversation on social media using #MKRSA.