Coming into MKR Australia as gatecrashers, school principal Caz James and her musician son Fergus weren’t really backing themselves.
“Whether we really thought, ‘Oh, we’re going to take this out,’ if I’m really honest, probably not,” confesses Caz, 51.
But the duo’s eyes are now firmly on the prize. They’ve secured a spot in the final four and are due back into Kitchen HQ in this week’s episodes. The pair spent every spare moment in their hotel rooms working on their cooking skills.
“I roasted a capsicum in the toaster,” Caz laughs. “It was just crazy!” Caz has also been phoning her daughter, who’s a chef, and angling for advice. She admits, “I’d ask, ‘Should I be doing this with the chicken?’ and she’d either say yes or no. She wasn’t offering up much.”
This week, when the top four teams reach Kitchen HQ, there’s drama as they give each other feedback on their dishes. But after decades as a teacher, Caz says she’s used to harsh criticism.
“We were totally ready for it. I thought we were pretty ready to give it to people in the nicest possible way,” she says.
Looking back over the season, Caz adds that she’s “pretty comfortable” with the way she and Fergus, 25, have come across on MKR. She’s originally from New South Wales but now lives in Tasmania.
But she knows other contestants wouldn’t be feeling as good. Especially Melbourne “Kitchen Queen” Janey Willox, 61, who’s competing with her daughter Maddie Devereux, 29, and whom she describes as “an incredibly generous person”.
She tells, “I feel bad. I just don’t think she saw a lot of this online criticism of her coming. It sounds selfish, but I’m really glad that’s not me being dragged through the mud like she and Maddie have been.”
MKR Australia screens 7.30pm Mondays and Tuesdays, and 7pm Sundays on TVNZ 2, streaming on TVNZ+.
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