The mystery box

Photo/File

A mystery box of another kind arrived at the MasterChef NZ house this week.

Our remaining six couples gathered for the grand opening. Among other things, the culinary carton contained a coconut - but still no sign of judge Ray Vinnie, conspicuous by his absence.

Last week our contestants were reunited with their previously confiscated passports so it was fairly safe to assume, last week's trailers aside, that overseas travel would soon be on the menu.

A note at the bottom of the box informed the competing cooks they were destined for sunny Samoa. I was expecting excitement and screams of delight, but actually our budding chefs seemed pretty much devoid of all enthusiasm. Perhaps they were hoping for a more continental destination, a little further from home.

Despite the somewhat flat response, our pairs pitched up oceanside and were presented with their first challenge ... they had 60 minutes to plate up a raw fish dish.

The couples were certainly feeling the heat, in more ways than one. The pressure was on to win a spot in the top five, so keeping cool took on a whole new meaning.

Challenge over and tasting complete Bec and Jamie continued their winning form followed by Tanisha and Verena. Bringing up the rear, however, were the once dominant mother/daughter duo of Nikki and Jordan and the boys, James and Glyn, all found guilty of seasoning crimes. They would have one last chance to redeem themselves before elimination. Could they do it?

The challenge was to start a fire and cook a crayfish dish in one hour.

Had they actually stuck to their own rules, the outcome would have been very different. Unable to start a fire, two duos - Verena and Tanisha and Karena and Kasey - were helped to the top five by the island locals who were rallied to complete the challenge for them. Very disappointing.

It was a clear condition that judge Josh shouted repeatedly at them. "No fire, no dish and you'll be going home."

The boys, though first to make fire, found themselves at the bottom again and with Nikki and Jordan making an impressive late comeback with the winning dish, the guys were sent packing. They certainly got a raw deal on the cooking challenge.
And so we have our, somewhat, debatable top five pairs ... one, at least, of which is decidedly prickly.

Here's hoping the race to the finish line will be a fair one and in no way half-baked.