It's dinner at Gretel's

Gretel Killeen is a famously bad cook. It was this amusing twist of irony which urged the genial former Big Brother host to sign on for the current season of Celebrity Come Dine with Me Australia.

"I thought it was hilarious that I'm such a bad cook so I thought it would be funny to be in a cooking competition," she said

"I thought 'How hard could it possibly be?' Then I forgot to add ingredients and we think I might have added a bad ingredient."

After a Christmas special which aired this month, the new season of Celebrity Come Dine with Me begins with Killeen's episode on January 7 on Foxtel.

The pescatarian takes on opinionated Australian fashion designer, Peter Morrissey, fashion writer and daughter of racing royalty Kate Waterhouse and celebrity landscape designer Charlie Albone who each host a dinner party.

When it came to Killeen's soiree she took an original (lazy?) approach to her three courses, consisting of prawn soup, crab salad and her mum's recipe for apple crumble.

"It doesn't even occur to me that food is an essential element of a dinner party for other people," she said.

"Not only do I not know how to cook, I made up my own recipe. That crab recipe is invented by me. Who does that when they can't even cook? What was I thinking?

"Kate cooked her meal three times in a row to practice but I winged the whole thing and then I got the guests to help and they sabotaged the whole thing by putting the wrong ingredients in the dishes."

The notion of four celebrities - some more famous than others - getting together for drinks and dinner, letting loose and showing us inside their homes truly has the makings of terrific TV. And that's just what we get with this raucous bunch.

"Experiences like that, it's kind of like you're in the trenches together . . . that time is bonding and we were very, very different characters but by and large very accepting of our differences," Killeen explained.

"It was a really interesting kind of anthropological study.

"We became our own little family in just four evenings together. It doesn't mean we'll be friends forever but we've shared that."

The author, television personality, documentary maker, stand-up comedian and mother of two is working on a new book, more stand-up performances and the possibility of new TV projects.

But don't call her a celebrity.

"I don't know what it means," she said.

"One time somebody thought I was Jodie Foster. Someone once thought I was Toni Collette and they wanted to take my photo. Once I did sign my signature as Jodie Foster.

"It feels like I'm living in a big country town but it's affectionate. I don't think of myself as a celebrity in any way because I don't lead a celebrity's life."

Other "celebrities" taking part in the show include former-Olympian Lisa Curry, Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham, The X Factor host Luke Jacobz and musicians James Morrison, Red Symons and Mark Holden.

Each believes they can serve up the best dinner party and hopes their unique style will clinch them the title of best host and $2000 for their chosen charity.

According to former Australian Idol judge Holden, each person has their own unique place in the celebrity alphabet.

"We know our place in the A, B, C and D list. We've been in each one at one point or another and more than once," he said.

"I've sort of gone from Justin Bieber to Bert Newton, so I've gone to something much less recognisable in my ageing, greying overweightness."

Signing on to the show to promote an album he is making with his family called The Holden Brother's Travelling Circus, Holden felt the show wouldn't impinge on his new career as a barrister.

"I've been offered a lot of things over the years and mostly I say no, recently, because I've been working at the Victorian bar as a barrister and mostly it's not really compatible," he said.

"I had to ask for ethics approval on this one and I got it.

"It's kind of a harmless re-engagement for me into the entertainment business having been out of it since 2008."

Holden takes on old pal Symons, Christie Whelan Browne and Tiffany Hall in his episode. And, like Killeen, the former singer is not exactly the best cook.

"I don't want to give anything away," he said. "But let me just say I can't believe I didn't beat Red."