Hawke's Bay couple Monique and Henry were eliminated from the first MKR semifinal. Photo / TVNZ
They were touted as the couple to beat on My Kitchen Rules, but a high pressure semi-final got the better of Hawke's Bay husband and wife Monique and Henry Heke.
They were beaten by Auckland friends William and Zoe and reveal the pair may have had an unfair advantage.
The couple revealed that those living in or near Auckland were able to go home each day, while contestants from further flung regions were put up in the city.
Following Tuesday night's shock elimination, Henry told the Herald: "Those who lived in Auckland had the luxury of practicing in their own kitchen, and sourcing produce they were familiar with and could source it prior to the show."
However, wife Monique said it cut both ways.
"I felt sorry particularly for Sarah and Jay [from Hamilton] who each day had to battle traffic and then go home to look after their three young children. While we missed our kids while we were in Auckland, we could solely concentrate on the challenges."
The couple were favourites to win the cooking competition, with fans regularly telling the pair they wanted them to win.
"We felt like we let people down because they kept telling us they really thought we were going to win," explained Monique. "But reading all the support afterwards in social media was just awesome."
The charismatic couple are hoping to showcase more of their culinary skills, admitting they would love to do a cooking roadshow or to produce a cookbook.
What got you to the semifinals?
MONIQUE: Listening to the brief for the challenges and sheer determination.
HENRY: Making sure we seasoned and tasted our food.
What will you take away from the MKR experience?
MONIQUE: That if we put our mind to a challenge together we can do it and support each other to do so.
HENRY: If your wife says it right then it's right, even if it's wrong it's still right.
Stress levels were at an all-time high in the semifinal, did you anticipate just how intense it would be?
MONIQUE: No we didn't but we were up against really stiff competition with Will and Zoe so we wanted to just give it 100%
HENRY: We had practice our dessert at 10pm the night before and it didn't work, so we gambled and went for it, hence the pressure right at the start.
What was the most difficult part of being part of MKR?
MONIQUE: Negotiating with each other about what to cook, once we agreed that was the easy part ... it was deciding that made it hard.
What were some of your personal highlights?
MONIQUE: Meeting Pete Evans was awesome and to hear it was the first time he had experienced a hongi was just awesome. Seeing people and especially kids who see you and recognise you and to talk to them and make them feel special. Sharing our aroha for our whanau and especially my grandfather who had not long passed away prior to the filming of MKR.
What is the first thing you cooked after elimination, and why?
HENRY: That next day we went to Monique's aunty's house on the North Shore and cooked them our five-course degustation dinner that we would have cooked for our final as we found and sourced our food products the next day.
Do you think it was more difficult being a couple on the show, or did that help?
MONIQUE: It might have appeared that way, but it was actually easier for us we could use our eyes to do the talking haha.
HENRY: I think we were advantaged as we knew each other well, we were able to read each other's Mojo!
How has MKR affected other parts of your life?
MONIQUE: We are both more creative and open to more and more entertaining (cooking for others) while we always enjoyed it, now it's exciting to see how people react to the kai we serve. I also feel very guilty if people see us at takeaway places with our kids ... but we are human still and yes, we do get busy and sometimes eat takeaways.
Also some people think that we are going to critique their food, we don't do that at all we just enjoy what others are sharing with us.
HENRY: I love everything about NZ and our cuisine as well as Maori and non-Maori culture, we are lucky as a nation!
Was there any drama off camera?
MONIQUE: What happens on tour stays on tour.
HENRY: Tautoko tera, my juju lips are sealed.
- nzherald.co.nz