MY KITCHEN RULES has started the year again as Seven's most successful reality program and one that helps the network win the night every time it airs.

But has Seven overcooked its golden goose?

It's been years since MKR was about anything close to cooking. The casting reflects the combative nature of what it has become, and viewers routinely tune in for their nightly dose of schadenfreude as contestants serve up food that belies their hefty (and as it turns out ill-informed) self-assessment. The contestant's mouths are writing cheques their culinary skills can't cash.

Best of all is when a contestant talks a big game and then is brought undone by an "uncharacteristic" moment of everything going wrong. Case in point is Instant Restaurant first round bad girl Zana.

Zana and her partner Gianni cook tonight as the final couple in the first round, and their total involvement thus far has been them shitting on everyone else's food from a great height and Zana pulling a variety of unimpressed faces. It's gonna be so great when it all goes wrong when they cook.

WE ALL KNOW that things will go bad for this legal eagle couple (without having to see the promos). WE ALL KNOW that there will be tears from Zana as her culinary world crumbles. WE ALL KNOW there will be an even worse bad girl in the next instant restaurant round.

The producers have followed the recipe to the letter, and fans of the series will know what's coming. Contestants carved off, redemption for some, disasters & successes aplenty.

It's this strict adhesion to the MKR recipe with very little variance that has me feeling as empty as the minutes after a big MSG-infused Chinese meal.

WE ALL KNOW what's coming.

A "surprise" *cough* Rachel Khoo *cough* judge? More unsurprising eliminations and redemptions? Far more episodes than any normal human can possibly handle?

We've been given far too much sizzle and nowhere near enough sausage for too long with MKR, and it's starting to show, and despite the massive ratings viewers will catch on soon enough.