My Kitchen Rules (MKR) 2026 has already introduced viewers to a colourful cast of home cooks, with plenty of personalities making their mark both in and out of the kitchen, including Alisha and Deanne.
The longtime friends have entered the competition together and are bringing their close friendship, big personalities and love of home cooking along for the ride.
The pair have known each other since their teenage years and have built a friendship that has lasted well beyond their school days. Now, they’re putting that bond to the test as they take on some of Australia’s biggest home cooks in the MKR kitchen.
But who exactly are Alisha and Deanne, and what do we know about the longtime besties before their My Kitchen Rules journey unfolds on-screen?
Alisha and Deanne’s MKR feud with Jane and Shane
It didn’t take long for Alisha and Deanne to find themselves at odds with fellow My Kitchen Rules contestants Jane and Shane, with the longtime friends opening up about their first impressions of the married couple in interviews.
Speaking to New Idea, Alisha claimed she and Deanne felt Jane and Shane had looked down on them during their first dinner together.
“It felt like they thought they were a bit better than us sitting around the table,” Alisha said.
Speaking to WHO, Alisha also admitted that Jane’s appearance initially caught her attention, saying, “I think I was thrown a little bit by what Jane was wearing and stuff.”
However, it was ultimately Jane’s demeanour and the way she interacted with the other contestants that left the biggest impression on the pair.
Alisha said she got the impression Jane considered herself “upper class” and viewed the other contestants as being beneath her.
“I mean, straight up, it was just pretty much that she was an upper class and everyone around her sort of wasn’t good enough to be sitting with her and stuff,” she told WHO.
According to Alisha and Deanne, comments Jane and Shane made throughout the episode only reinforced that impression, particularly when it came to their attitudes towards food and their fellow contestants.
“Everything they said was just, yeah, well, we don’t, you know, line up for food or, you know, we’ve got a tradie over here who apparently has never had a party,” Alisha told WHO.
The pair were also unimpressed by Jane’s approach to judging Krysten and Lucy’s dishes, with Deanne taking issue with the fact that Jane appeared to focus heavily on the presentation.
“The way that she was just judging the plating and things like that,” Deanne fumes via New Idea.
“You haven’t even tasted the food.”
Alisha also questioned Jane’s use of the phrase “considered cooking”, joking that she still hadn’t worked out what it meant.
“I still haven’t Googled it yet, but I don’t know what ‘considered cooking’ is,” Alisha told New Idea.
The friends even suggested Jane might be better suited to MasterChef Australia, rather than MKR.
“I guess they forgot that it’s home-style cooking and not five-star Michelin,” Alisha said.
“There’s another competition that has a mystery box. I think you’re supposed to be there, [Jane].”
Alisha’s overall assessment of Jane and Shane, meanwhile, was that they were “very stubby, very stubborn, very stubby”, while she also felt the pair were taking a relatively safe approach in the kitchen.
With the competition only just beginning, Alisha and Deanne have already made their feelings about Jane and Shane clear — and their outspoken approach suggests this may not be the last clash between the teams.
Alisha and Deanne’s concerns over Jane’s Colin Fassnidge connection
The situation became even more awkward when it emerged that Jane had previously worked with MKR judge Colin Fassnidge as a food stylist.
Alisha and Deanne admitted to New Idea that the connection made them question whether Jane could have an advantage in the competition.
“I was like, ‘What has this competition turned into? Is there going to be favouritism?’” Deanne says.
“We thought that might give her a leg up on the competition.”
Alisha also questioned whether Jane and Colin’s relationship was closer than she had initially realised.
“I feel like she had maybe a bit more of a friendship there than she was letting on,” Alisha adds.
However, the pair were quick to clarify that they have nothing against Colin himself — quite the opposite. “Not that we have favourites [between Colin and Manu], but if we did, it would be Colin,” Deanne says.
Alisha and Deanne were voted most likely to go home first
The drama didn’t stop there.
During the episode, their fellow contestants voted Alisha and Deanne as the team most likely to be eliminated first.
For the longtime friends, however, the result was difficult to take, particularly because they felt they had been judged on their personalities before their cooking had really been given a chance.
“It was quite intimidating just seeing that we were sort of already put down from the get-go,” Alisha says.
“It wasn’t a nice feeling. Me and Dee left the first dinner feeling a little bit down, I guess the fact that everyone was already judging us on our personalities.”
Deanne said they were accustomed to banter and weren’t normally easily offended, but admitted this particular situation hit differently.
“We all banter and joke and not even blink an eye at it, but that was a bit hard, being judged on that.”
The pair are now warning viewers against making the same assumptions about them, promising that MKR hasn’t seen “two people like us before”.
They’ve also teased “big emotions” alongside plenty of laughs as the competition continues.
Jane, meanwhile, has described the pair as serving “a lot of nonsense”, but Alisha and Deanne appear more than happy to embrace their “chaotic” reputation.
What was it like filming MKR?
Despite the pressure, Alisha and Deanne appear to have thoroughly enjoyed their time on the show.
“It was exciting,” Alisha told New Idea of the filming process.
“[It was the] first time I was ever mic’d up, I was loving it.”
Deanne was equally enthusiastic, revealing that the pair were even reluctant to give up their microphones when filming wrapped.
“When we left, we were like, ‘Where’s our mics?’”
The friends also embraced their time as Instant Restaurant guests, where they enjoyed having “one or two drinks” and being able to freely give their opinions on the other teams.
However, Alisha revealed to New Idea that filming came with an unexpected complication: sometimes the cameras meant they had to repeat actions while cooking.
“You’d add something whilst you’re cooking, and if you are getting that part on camera, they’d be like, ‘Could you do that again?’” Alisha explains.
“You’re like, great, that bit of salt in there is now going to be really salty because I’ve had to do it again so they can catch that on camera.
“You’re being watched the whole time, so it’s definitely a lot of pressure. It does add that little bit of extra time where the pressure’s on.”
Who are My Kitchen Rules team Alisha and Deanne?
Alisha and Deanne are longtime friends who first met at school as teenagers and have remained close ever since.
The pair now spend much of their free time together and describe their friendship as extremely close, with plenty of “yapping” forming part of their day-to-day dynamic.
According to Alisha, the friends have remarkably similar personalities.
“We’re two peas in a pod,” she revealed in the promo.
“We’re both chaotic, loud, in-your-face, crazy, funny and quick-witted – and we have absolutely no filter.”
Deanne has similarly described the pair as practically inseparable, joking that they may as well be twins.
“We have massive personalities and are basically one brain,” she said.
“We always say we must have been switched at birth because we should be twins.”
Their friendship is now being put on display in the MKR kitchen, where the pair are entering the competition as a team.
They’ve described themselves as “classy bogans” and are bringing their home-style cooking to the table, with both choosing dishes that have personal significance.
For Alisha, that means serving up her nan’s sticky date pudding, while Deanne will be making birria tacos.
But while their friendship is one of the biggest parts of their MKR journey, it didn’t take long for the pair to find themselves at the centre of some serious tension.
Let’s see where their culinary adventures take them next!
My Kitchen Rules airs on Channel 7 and 7Plus.
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