In November last year, Melbourne comedians Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan raised more than $12,000 for the Human Rights Law Centre just by selling aprons online.
The “Border Force Bonanza Sale” came about during the protracted public campaign to get asylum seeker children out of detention in Australia. McCartney had just had her first baby and McLennan was pregnant, so the issue felt personal.
The bright orange aprons were emblazoned with the logo of their comedy web series, the Katering Show: a circle of intestine to represent McCartney’s intolerance of food, surrounded by a circle of ingredients to represent McLennan’s passion for it.
That so many fans wanted to own one was likely as much to do with politics as the success of the show – at that point, anything branded by their series was going to be gobbled up.
The Katering Show was launched on YouTube last year – a satirical cooking show hosted by both Kates that skewers all the most insufferable parts of the current foodie culture, from sugar quitters to farmers’ markets (“The people here make me involuntarily bleed out of my anus,” McLennan says to camera, with a TV host smile).
As of today, their most popular episode – in which they roadtest the Thermomix: “Something that you buy yourself because you’ve always wanted to join a cult but don’t have the energy for group sex!” – has clocked more than 2.1m views on Facebook, so it’s no surprise ABC iView was keen to pick them up for a second run.
But the pressure of a follow-up can be paralysing, which the first scene of the return series plays up perfectly. It opens with a sweeping outdoors aerial shot of the pair flanked by aproned extras, reminiscent to anyone who’s watched Masterchef. “The world is waiting for us to fail,” grins McLennan, through gritted teeth. “The pressure is overwhelming!”
With the full season now available to stream online (and not a failure in sight), Guardian Australia caught up with McLennan and McCartney and barraged them with questions about food.
Guardian Australia: How has life changed for you since the first series went so very viral?
Kate McCartney: I got a free coffee the other day. They got my order wrong but still, I felt like a queen.
Kate McLennan: People from high school talk to me now on Facebook. So fame really has its downside.
You’ve just launched season two. Will you do a season three?
McLennan: As we say in the show, we have genuinely spent the past 12 months on the couch with our boobs out watching the Good Wife, so if we did do another series, we’d have to actually go out and experience some food culture first, rather than Googling “food trends 2015” on our phones and hoping for the best.
What are the most common things that fans of your show get wrong about you?
McLennan: That I’m nice.
McCartney: That I’m fun.
Are you getting sick of being interviewed about food yet?
McCartney: That’s a tough question to answer because I came into this venture already sick of talking about food.
McLennan: Yes.
Here is an interview about food.
McCartney: OK great.
McLennan: Sounds good.
When did you most/least need...
Australia’s first vegan “mylk” bar, which opened in Bondi this month:
McCartney: I most needed vegan nut “mylk” when I wanted to remember what childbirth feels like via a comprehensive exploration of my nut intolerances.
McLennan: I most needed this when I went out with a vegan for six years and we ran out of common ground halfway through year two.
McCartney: I most needed this when I was rich and stupid. Wait, that has never happened. I am poor but a genius.
McLennan: I least needed it the last time I made a cheese toastie with white bread and two Kraft cheese singles that cost me 75c AND IT TASTED FANTASTIC.
Eateries that appropriate cultural stereotypes in order to market their menu:
McLennan: I most needed a casually racist eatery when I was organising a venue for the Australian women’s basketball team Christmas party.
McCartney: I most needed this as a salve when shooting was delayed on my Oodgeroo Noonuccal biopic because Margot Robbie broke her foot.
Bhut jolokia or ghost chilli, one of the world’s hottest chillies, which was sampled by Prince William last week:
McLennan: I most needed it after I finished a full and very powerful course of oxycodone after my emergency c-section.
McCartney: I most needed it when I was a dude and I wanted to prove my manhood in a way that didn’t progress the conversation around constructions of masculinity but did make me shit my pants.
Sydney’s first stoner cafe:
McLennan: I most needed a hot dog filled with pizza a year ago. I wasn’t stoned but I was deeply pregnant.
McCartney: I most needed this tonight and I can have it. I’m not stoned but I’ve got ice-cream in the fridge, some pretzels in the cupboard and no personal standards.
High-end Spam, which is apparently a thing:
McCartney: I most needed it when I was trying to fashion an attractive hat that would endear me to seagulls.
McLennan: I most needed this when making fake facial warts during my stint as props master of the Ballarat academy of performing arts production of the Wizard of Oz.
McLennan: I most needed this when I was travelling in New York and suddenly needed to know what an emu’s ovum looked like.
McCartney: I least needed this when I befriended an emu and she kindly showed me her ovum.
The Shoreditch cafe that only sells cereal, which was subject to a riot in 2015:
McLennan: I most needed this now. Are they on Menulog?
McCartney: I most needed this two hours ago when I had leftover sushi for breakfast that was of questionable origin and expiration date and now I feel like my stomach is about to Shawshank Redemption its way out of my body to freedom. Please someone send a St Bernard that can drag me to emergency.
The Halal Snack Pack:
McCartney: I most needed this when I was doing some “science-y research” for the UPF [far-right group, the United Patriots Front] and I wanted to witness first-hand how halal food destroys the fabric of this great nation, one dipping sauce at a time.
Pre-ordered jaffles thrown from rooftops that float down from the sky wearing parachutes:
McLennan: I most needed this when I found out that Santa wasn’t real and I needed to know that magic still existed.
McCartney: I most needed this when I wanted to combine a hot sandwich with the horrors of war.
• The Katering Show’s second series is streaming now on ABC iView
