What does meat taste like after you've been a vegetarian most of your life? Like "angels pissing" on your tongue, according to My Kitchen Rules vegan enemy number one.
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Courtney, one half of Victoria's loveable My Kitchen Rules duo, has revealed the hate she's received from animal rights activists thanks to billing herself a "recovering" vegetarian on the hit show's latest season.
Along with her husband Duncan, the pair are billed as this year's hipster contestants - despite living just beyond the hipster curtain in Coburg.
The 29-year-old, who has become a fan favourite due to her empathy towards other contestants, was a vegan for about 12 months but has been vegetarian for most of her life. She started eating meat not long before meeting Duncan, and thought it would be funny to joke about her new lifestyle on national television because it's often the butt of numerous in-jokes.
But not long after the first episode went live, the negative comments started pouring in. On Instagram, one woman said Courtney should be ashamed of herself. Activist group PETA, meanwhile, have sent her a vegan "restarter kit" and a box of tissues.
But haters gunna hate, according to the small business owner, who says online trolls probably don't know that she and her husband always source their meat ethically. For example, the pair buy their red meat from small farms owned by people they know, and only ever eat fish when it's been caught by Duncan himself.
"I eat meat now and it makes me feel great, but I still have such respect for people that don't," Courtney told Fairfax Media.
"Everyone has a choice in life as to what they care about. But you can't force change on other people.
"We have so many vegan and vegetarian friends and we love cooking for them - to think we're the devil children of this situation is pretty ridiculous."
But if online trolls are furious at the former vegetarian for choosing to eat free-range and organic meat, imagine what they'd do when they find out Courtney's reaction when she first stepped over to the dark side.
Speaking at a Gold FM function in Melbourne on Wednesday night, she revealed she started eating meat again because she found herself constantly tired and lacking energy.
"I smelt chicken and bacon and was like, maybe I should try this," the MKR contestant told the crowd.
"And when I did, it was like angels pissing on my tongue."
