MKR judge says it like it is

 KING OF CRITICISM: "I wouldn't like to be getting judged by me.

Colin Fassnidge has earned the title of 'toughest judge to impress' on My Kitchen Rules.
After his first season on the reality show last year he copped a bit of flak from viewers for his harsh comments. But does the Irish-born chef think that view of his judging is fair or accurate?
"I wouldn't like to be getting judged by me," he laughs. "In my own life I've got  30 chefs so I'm always on top of them and I can't switch from that person to, 'Oh OK, we'll just let that go'.
"I don't give a lot of leeway basically. It would be like me doing a DIY show. I'd expect to get caned because I'm no good at DIY."
Colin returns to the reality series this year with a new challenge for the contestants - putting them through their paces in their own food trucks.
And Colin warns he is unlikely to tone down his criticism this year.
"The way they sold it to me was, 'Come in and you can be honest and you don't have to play games and you can tell it like it is'," Colin says.
"I think I did that last year, which some people liked and some didn't. I'm not actually as nasty as I am on the show, but I'm going to tell the truth. I mean, there is 250 grand to win so if the dish is not very good I'm going to tell them."
It is not always easy being tough. Colin says although it might not seem like it, he genuinely feels for the eliminated teams. Well, some of them anyway.
"I enjoy kicking some of them off," he says. "I'm not going to say who. Some of them because it means so much and it looks very easy to just kick them off, but sometimes you're just standing there and you've got to just zone out and that can be a bit hard. It depends who it is. Some of them, I'll call a taxi for them."
While many contestants come  into the show with dreams of  owning their own restaurant, the Sydney-based chef has another  idea for what they could do with  the prize money.
"I don't know why they want to make it in the restaurant industry," he says. "It's a tough world and even I'm going 'I'm too old for this now'.
"The restaurant industry is all  about passion and a lot of them do  have passion...
"Some of them are young enough that they want to do it, I just don't know why. Go on a holiday, win the money and go away and eat in restaurants."
Although Colin is usually candid to a fault, he says he has learnt from being in the public eye that honesty is not always the best policy.
"That's why she's sitting there,"Colin laughs gesturing towards the show's publicist.
"(The show has) got two million viewers. A million like you and a million don't, especially me. That's always there.
"They tell you don't read the blogs or the tweets. One night I had a few too many red wines and I was always getting berated...
"There was one guy who just went to town on me and he just went over the top and I think I fired back.
I got into trouble for that."
- TV Guide