The Katering Show is back... and the Kates are cooking a placenta.

The long-awaited second series of The Katering Show has just dropped on the ABC.

All episodes are available in what Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney are calling an “internet dump” on the ABC’s iView service.

The food intolerant and the intolerable foodie have given Mamamia a little taster of what to expect in the second episode of the series, entitled Yummy Mummies.

I chatted with the Kates: McLennan and McCartney about the episode – which centres around McLennan using her placenta to make a delicious “plasagne” – as well as how they filmed the show around caring for their young babies, and just what McCartney’s using that Thermomix for these days.

“We are excited. We are a little bit – I feel like I’m a little bit anxious,” McLennan tells me about the show’s launch.

“I sound like I’ve had a lot of pseudoephedrine, but I haven’t. I think that might be anxiety,” says McCartney.

I tell them I have watched the episode Yummy Mummies, in which they take that term quite, quite literally.

“And how are you feeling?” McLennan enquires.

“Nauseous,” I respond, to the glee of both Kates.

Warning: spoilers ahead.

“That’s great, that’s what we were going for,” says McCartney.

“It’s interesting because I look at the placenta – because that is actually my real placenta. It was a stunt placenta that we cut up and cooked, but the one that I’m cutting up on screen and dumping out on the bench is real. So I watch it and I have these – it’s a weird response,” says McLennan.

“Obviously when were were writing it my character was quietly grossed out by it, but she put on a brave face and maintained this veneer of being a professional and hosting the show. But the reality is that I’m so proud of it.”

“So proud,” chimes in McCartney. “You’re like a cat that’s brought a dead pigeon into the house.”

"I grew it!" says McLennan. "And it fascinates me. It helped to keep my daughter alive and when people talk about it in a negative way, I get quite offended. Like, 'How dare you turn your nose up at my beautiful placenta!' I could talk about my placenta till the cows come home. I'm really protective of my placenta."

McLennan gave birth to her daughter Dusty several months before filming began, but she had her priorities straight the whole time.

"Before she gave birth, she kept saying, 'I'll keep it, I'll keep it for the episode.' And I was like, 'Alright mate, you're not going to remember to do that,'" says McCartney, who had her own daughter Millie not long before McLennan. "She gave birth, and for the entire period between her giving birth and the filming, like every week, she would just go, 'It's in the freezer.'"

"My partner was quite horrified. He was like, 'You're not going to keep it,' and I was like, 'I am.' And then my midwife asked me if I wanted to keep it, and I said, 'Yes please, I want to use it for the next series of The Katering Show.' So all the nurses at my hospital thought that it was hilarious," says McLennan.

McLennan kept the placenta from late September until early January, "which is the amount of time you can keep meat in the freezer," says McCartney.

McLennan, overcome with pride in her baby-nourishing placenta, didn't realise how confronting others might find her afterbirth.

"I never quite processed how insane it was until we wrapped the shooting and our head of art department Jo Brisco had to handle it. So she was the one who had to deal with it and house it in the freezer and defrost it and then plate it up. She was wearing gloves and stuff," says McLennan. "And one day we were shooting and I flopped it out on the bench and blood -- that was real blood -- seeped out of it. And I realised how gross it was."

"Even normal food, once it's under lights for 12 hours, really stinks," says McCartney. "So that was tough. I mean, I can still smell it."

What else do the girls tackle this season?

"We give ramen a go. Around where we are, there's just a glut, kind of a plague of ramen bars each with their own DJ in the window," says McCartney.

"There's an episode called The Body Issue where we look at how we're supposed to be presented in a certain way on camera in society as women, so we looked at three different diet trends," says McLennan.

Although both women had given birth to their first babies shortly before filming began, they were loathe to make motherhood the focus of The Katering Show's second season.

"When we were writing it I think there was an expectation that we would do an episode about baby food, or do an episode about mummy blogs -- an episode about being a mum. And so I think that's why we went with the idea that we did with Yummy Mummies," says McLennan.

"We wanted to blow that idea of how mothers are supposed to be represented on screen just completely out of the water and represent ourselves in a way that women usually aren't represented.

"And it would be so insincere to do something that wasn't slightly dark in some way. Some people wanted us to put the second episode [Yummy Mummies] first, but that's not what the series is about. We're not going to be defined just as mothers, there's a lot of other stuff going on with what we have to say."

"Like I have a cat," says McCartney. "And you're blonde."

"That's right," agrees McLennan.

They also made sure that the filming process worked around their babies' needs.

"The kids were a real part of the conversation. In a lot of careers, but especially in film and television, you have to kind of pretend like you don't have kids, or like it's not a problem. But with this, it was part of the conversation from the time we committed to doing a second series," says McCartney.

"The shoot was really fun because your body does kind of belong to someone else a little bit for the first year, so going and getting your hair and make-up done everyday -- just having someone gently touch your face and tell you what colours look good on you -- it's a beautiful dream."

Now that both girls are eating solids, McCartney's finding the constant pureeing of foods arduous.

"You know what, it's almost exclusively used for making baby food," says Kate McCartney of her infamous Thermomix. "I don't like cooking food. I'm never going to like cooking food. But having a Thermomix makes me not hate it quite as much. I'm about 80 per cent hating cooking food. Eight-five. I still resent it. It's completely galling that my child requires five meals a day."

"My kid has lots of fat rolls on her neck. So I just feed her and try and get the food that hasn't gone in her mouth - which is most of it - out of her neck folds," says McLennan.

So what's next for Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney?

First, they're "going to have a big drink" after the new series goes live tomorrow. Next, they're heading to LA to "to meet our agent, thank you." And finally, they're going to start workshopping some brand new ideas together in a room with a whiteboard -- McLennan's happy place.

We can't wait to see what they come up with next.

Go to ABC iView to watch the entire internet dump of The Katering Show series 2.