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Travel Guides' Fren family take viewers inside their restaurant Oma's Kitchen

5 years ago

Three million tuned in last night for the season finale of Channel Nine's Travel Guides , but it's business as usual for series favourites the Frens, who between global jaunts and a busy TV schedule, together run German restaurant Oma's Kitchen.

The foursome, made up of Mark, Cathy and kids Victoria and Jono, have been starring on the reality series since it began three seasons ago.

Their self-depreciating attitude has had lounge rooms in stitches across the country.

But while the Frens might be used to being put up in swanky digs on the other side of the world and dishing out ratings as part of their role as TV travel critics, A Current Affair reporter Steve Marshall turned the tables on Australia's favourite clan, visiting their popular Newcastle diner to dish them a rating of his own.

Former kindy teachers Mark and Cathy opened Oma's Kitchen several years ago, bringing the kids onboard the family business.

It's this close-knit working environment that's fostered their cheeky, no-holds-barred sense of humour, Mark says.

"I've got be honest, I've got a great family and 'cause we work so closely together in the restaurant we kind of just can take the mickey out of each other and make fun of each other without anyone getting too upset."

The success of Travel Guides has made the Fren's local celebrities, attracting many customers to the restaurant.

"'We are really humbled by the amount of people who come from all over Oz to meet us and it's really injected tourism, I suppose, for Newcastle," Mark says.

Though if you ask the family, they'll tell you life really hasn't changed that much at all despite their fame.

"It hasn't [changed], I still work here," daughter Victoria says, jokingly adding "yes, [for] minimum wage."

Matriarch Cathy admits she didn't realise people would like them when the series began.

"I thought they'd think we were nuts but apparently we are the norm.

"What you see is what you get but everyone likes it, so we figured it's the new normal," she says.

Watch the full segment above for A Current Affair 's final verdict on the restaurant.

Nine are currently on the hunt for a new group of travel recruits for season 4 of Travel Guides. To submit an application, visit travelguidestv.com.au before midnight on Monday, April 15, 2019.

To catch up on the latest episodes of A Current Affair, visit 9now.com.au/a-current-affair .

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The accident that led to the Fren Family being cast on Travel Guides

Newcastle Travel Guides the Fren family have had Australia in stitches since they started on the Nine network show in 2017.

But mum and daughter Cathy and Victoria Fren told   Vacations & Travel   their appearance on the reality TV show was a total accident.

They never even applied.

The Fren family, Mark (59) and Cathy (57), and their two kids Jonathon (29) and Victoria (27) owned and operated Bavarian-style restaurant Oma together for ten years.

“Because of the restaurant they actually asked Mum to audition for a cooking show,” Victoria said.

“We didn’t get on that, I don’t even think the show ever aired.”

“But 12 months later we got a call asking about a show called Travel Guides and now here we are.”

The Fren Family matriarchs, Victoria and Cathy are well-known for being upfront. Jonathon and Mark are a bit more reserved.

But Victoria says the boys were “super keen” when Cathy pitched the Travel Guides plan to her clan.

“I mean who doesn’t love a free holiday,” Victoria said.

The Fren family have been on 38 “free holidays” to be exact. They’ve been lucky enough to travel to the most spectacular international and domestic destinations.

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• Travel Guides 2021 to take on international destinations
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The Fren family on Travel Guides 2021

The Travel Guides 2021 season sees the Fren family jet Greece, South Korea, Mauritius and Cambodia.

Cathy doesn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea: “Obviously all the overseas destinations were filmed before the pandemic”.

“We started filming this season in July of 2019 and we finished somewhere around mid November that year.”

Of all the international destinations that feature on Travel Guides 2021, Cathy and Victoria say that “Hands down, Greece was our favourite.”

“Mykonos was party central,” Cathy said.

Victoria disagrees, taking a dig at her mum.

“No, Mum and Dad went home early, I stayed and partied way on into the morning,” she said.

It clearly hits the spot.

“What are you talking about? We have a great relationship,” jokes Cathy.

Funny Frens

It’s clear that a great sense of humour is what keeps the Fren family so tight-knit.

They never take themselves too seriously.

“There isn’t a week if not a day that goes by where we don’t laugh about something that we’ve done,” Cathy told Vacations & Travel.

Of all the unpredictable situations the mother-daughter duo have found themselves in, they say that their ‘Mermaid Makeover’ is one they still can’t stop cracking up over.

Even though the Fren family are always up for a laugh they say that this season of Travel Guides was especially eye-opening for them.

“We got to go to Cambodia and that was a real culture shock for us because it’s a developing country. We got to see a lot of sadness there but it was really special to be able to do something like that,” Victoria said.

Brutally honest

Although they’re always grateful to journey abroad, the Fren family take their job as travel critics very seriously.

“We always tell the truth, because we know that there are so many people out there who actually go and do the same holiday we do,” Cathy said

“If we say we like something that we didn’t and then someone goes to that destination they’ll know we were lying.”

So many Australians relate to the larrikin family. But Cathy says she was initially surprised to hear that her family was the norm.

“When I brought my family on the show, I thought we were all crazy. But after being on the show so many people told us that we’re normal. I actually can’t believe it.”

This article is a Holidays with Kids digital exclusive. Be the first to see more exclusive online content by subscribing to the enewsletter here .

Lead image © Nine Network

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The Fren family reveal: “Travel guides saved us!”

When the Fren family decided to apply for Travel Guides, they never imagined they would still be doing the series three seasons later.

Since the show’s 2017 launch, Mark and Cathy, along with their daughter Victoria and son Jonathon, are often recognised as they go about their day-to-day lives.

But the show has served as much more than just a route to fame. For the Fren clan, from Newcastle in NSW, it’s supported them financially through a turbulent time for their family-run German restaurant, Oma’s Kitchen.

“It’s been our lifeline, really,” mum Cathy, 55, admits to TV WEEK. “We’ve had a few problems over the past few years with regards to the [construction of] the light rail and the V8 Supercars 500 racetrack in Newcastle. It’s not a great place to be.

“The hardest part about being on the show is coming back and having to reopen a restaurant and get it up and running again.”

The restaurant’s location means the Frens are forced to close during the staging of the annual Supercars Championship. In the first year of the event, it remained closed for five months. The family claim they lost 90 per cent of their customers and suffered financially.

It’s why, Mark, 57, says they’re extremely grateful to the Nine Network for asking them to return to the quirky travel show year after year.

“We thought it would be like most reality TV shows − that we’d just have one year and that’d be it,” the former primary school teacher explains.

“But people relate to us as a family.”

Part of the Frens’ appeal is their ability to cope with stressful situations − and to see the lighter side.

“We thought we were nuts,” Cathy admits. “I kept on saying, ‘I can’t believe people think we’re normal!’ We just like to say what we think. There are no airs or graces.”

The new season premiere of Travel Guides attracted an impressive 752,000 viewers, indicating that both the family and program have built a steady following.

People often approach the family to tell them how they’ve affected their lives.

“We get many emails from people who are sick,” Mark says. “It’s such a feel-good show and I think it brings people so much joy, even if just for an hour.”

Cathy adds, “For me, that’s one of the best things to come out of Travel Guides − that we can give people so much joy and happiness.”

Mark says his son Jonathon, 27, probably gets the most attention. Fans of the show seem particularly obsessed with finding him a girlfriend.

“A little old lady came into the restaurant recently and said, ‘Excuse me − does Jonathon get laid in this series?'” Mark says with a laugh. “She was well into her 80s!”

Jonathon says he’s used to it.

“I don’t know why everyone wants me to find a girlfriend,” he says. “Maybe it’s because I have to succeed at everything, and that’s the only thing I haven’t succeeded at.”

Victoria’s view is that her brother is picky and she says he has “a long list” of attributes his ideal woman must have.

“She can’t be fat, short or have curly blonde hair,” the 25-year-old explains.

Listening in, Cathy is quick to make a wry observation.

“He’s describing his mother!” she exclaims. “Everything he says he doesn’t want is me!”

Banter aside, it’s clear the family share a special bond. Cathy and Mark love the fact they get to spend so much time with their children as adults. They also have fond memories of their kids as they grew up.

“They were beautiful children and were spoiled rotten,” Cathy says. “Jonathon has always been quiet and was an excellent student. Victoria was beautiful until she was about 15, and then went totally wild until she was about 21.”

Jonathon adds, “They were fantastic parents. And they did spoil us rotten. They always had time for us.”

Travel Guides airs Tuesday, 9pm, Nine Network.

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Fren Family

The Frens are a quirky and loveable family from Newcastle, known for their loud and no-filter personalities. While Mark and Cathy are both primary school teachers, Jono and Vic work in hospitality. The family bond over food, especially buffets and fried food.

The Frens are not too fond of exotic food or roughing it, but they do enjoy luxury holidays at a bargain price and adrenalin activities that don't require too much exertion.

Jono marriage to wife Danielle, and Victoria's recent marriage to long time partner, Nathan, hasn't stopped the four Frens spending plenty of time together and their love of their hometown of Newcastle is apparent in their comparisons of everything to the city. Mark loves to shock the kids with inappropriate innuendos, and the whole family delights in taking the mickey out of each other.

Despite their cultural cluelessness and language mangling, the Frens are a self-deprecating family who love to do absolutely nothing... together.

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Newcastle family flying high on Travel Guides fame

Food and travel made Newcastle’s Fren family famous in 2017 but it was just a taste of things to come. 

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Mark and Cathy Fren, who own and run Oma’s Kitchen with the help of their children Jonathon and Victoria, starred in the first season of Travel Guides last year.  

Their sense of humour made them popular with viewers, many of whom have visited the family’s Watt Street restaurant. Even so, the Frens were shocked when the show’s producers asked them to return for season two. 

“We are just ourselves on the show, an ordinary family with four different personalities,” Mark Fern told Food & Wine. “But we have come to realise that people are able to relate to us. I mean, who doesn’t say ‘Who farted?’ on a road trip?”

Episode one of season two aired on Monday, where each family jetted off for a week-long holiday to Bologna, the food capital of Italy. The Frens hosted a sold-out themed dinner event and screening on the night, and will continue to do so throughout the series.

So, what can viewers expect in season two?

“If anything is going to go wrong, it happens to us. There are plenty of laughs,” Victoria said. “The most amazing thing is that out of the eight holidays we hadn’t been to any of the destinations. This made it very exiting for all of us. The viewers can look forward to our honest and open reviews of each destination.”

It is very much a case of business as usual at Oma’s Kitchen, though. A new Bavarian menu has been introduced with vegan and gluten-free options as well as sharing platters, and there are new German beers on tap. The restaurant is now also open for dinner three nights a week.

The signature pork knuckle sharing platter with marinated pork steak and a pork, a beef and a beef/cheese sausage has proven popular at $65. It is served with potato mash, red cabbage, sauerkraut, apple sauce and gravy.​ 

“As soon as Travel Guides was aired we all became more recognisable. A day doesn’t go by when we are not asked to have a photo taken or told how great the show is,” Victoria said.

“The restaurant is always buzzing with our regulars as well as fans popping in from all over Australia to meet us and ask if Jonathon has a girlfriend yet. But we are all still working extremely hard at Oma’s Kitchen with long days and nights and the usual meltdowns.”

Lisa Rockman

Newcastle Herald

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How Travel Guides’ Fren family became fan-favourites by being ‘exactly how we are’

If there’s one thing we know about the Fren family from watching them on  Travel Guides , it’s that they know how to have a good time.

WATCH BELOW: Travel Guides: The Fren family visit a farm

Often finding themselves in unpredictable situations due to their ‘have-a-go’ nature, the Frens always find the funny side of any holiday disaster.

It’s something that has proven to be quite handy during their travels on the Channel Nine reality show, where they act as travel critics on a week-long holiday.

Ever since they first graced our screens in 2017, the Frens – Mark, Cathy, Jono and Victoria – have been providing us with laughs, and the show wouldn’t be the same without them.

Get to know more about the family here.

With their good-natured bickering and silly antics, the Frens have found the perfect balance to make their family work.

Mark keeps things upbeat and is a forthright dad, and is the other half to his wife Cathy, who has a quirky sense of humour and distinctive laugh that’s very contagious.

The couple have been married for more than 30 years and share two kids together, Victoria and Jonathon.

While Victoria is always ready to voice an opinion, Jonathon is a little more on the reserved side out of the bunch – offering a good mix within the family.

Although, while it seems like the show is the perfect fit for the family, Mark and Cathy were originally approached by Channel 9 to audition for something completely different – a cooking series called The Hotplate .

The show was never renewed for a second season, and the Frens family found themselves with spots on the  Travel Guides cast, where they say what you see is what you get.

“Something that we said straight off was that we’re portrayed exactly how we are. And all the people in the show, how they act, and how Channel 9 portrays them is exactly how they act,” Cathy told In Touch magazine.

“And that’s what we like. We’re ourselves. Halfway through the first series, I said to a producer, ‘How are we going? Are we alright?’ And he went, ‘Oh, you’re hilarious.’ And I said, ‘Well, I didn’t even know it was supposed to be a humorous show.’ We were just ourselves, so that’s just the way it went.”

While we’re used to seeing the Frens as just a family of four, the tight-knit clan expanded when Jono wed his partner of two years, Danielle Clark, on June 5 this year.

“They’re a great match,” his mum Cathy told Woman’s Day .  “They really complement each other. They’re madly in love and they’re really caring towards each other.”

His dad Mark also said that they were “so proud” of both the bride and groom, and Victoria added that Danielle has brought her older 
brother out of his shell.

“Individually they’re both quiet people, but when they’re out and about together they’re the total opposite – they’re really outgoing and keen to party,” she said.

The Fren family could also see another exciting addition now that the pair are married, with Danielle, who’s since changed her last name to Fren, and Jono having confirmed their readiness to be parents.

“Definitely!” he told the magazine. “A whole new Fren family!”

His family are certainly already keen, with Victoria having said: “I think a baby will be within the next few months. A few months… plus nine!”

Mark also added: “We’ve already worked out our grandparent names!”

Travel Guides airs Tuesday, 9pm, Nine Network.

Chanelle is the Shopping & Streaming Editor across a broad portfolio of digital brands, including ELLE, Marie Claire, WHO, Now To Love and more. With a background in entertainment and lifestyle, she loves any excuse to talk about her latest celebrity crush, what’s trending on #BookTok and the latest watercooler show she’s obsessing over.

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