Tiffany and Giancarlo were eliminated from My Kitchen Rules in a shock result, with the couple claiming strategic scoring by their fellow contestants ultimately cost them their place in the competition.
Even though judges Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge’s votes counted more, they believe some teams deliberately marked down their dishes in an attempt to remove strong competitors out of the show.
“Entering the elimination cook-off, we were confident because we believed, well, we know, we’re stronger cooks than Zac and Zoe,” Giancarlo told 7NEWS.com.au.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
“We were going into that cook pretty confident, but we were also taking it pretty seriously.
“You know, we didn’t really sleep much the night before because we made sure we wanted to have the timing right because that’s always been a bit of a struggle for us.”
The two teams were challenged to prepare a two-course banquet, consisting of a main and dessert, before the dishes were scored out of 10.
Leaning into their Italian heritage, Tiffany and Giancarlo were confident in their menu. However, the couple suffered a dessert mishap when Tiffany forgot to add flour to the tiramisu.
Despite the mistake, they believed their dishes were deliberately marked down by some contestants.
While Angus was absent from the episode, his teammate Simon made no secret of his intention to score the couple considerably lower to bring down their overall average.
“The strategy of the night is to keep Zac and Zoe in the competition – and for Tiffany and Giancarlo to go home,” Angus said.
“Do you want to verse a strong team, or do you want a guaranteed win against Zac and Zoe?
“I want to make sure my scores are really low for Giancarlo and Tiffany to bring their average down.
“And for Zac and Zoe I’m going to inflate it a bit to bring their team average up.”
Finding themselves in the elimination cook-off came as a shock to Tiffany and Giancarlo, who said they were determined to prove they deserved to remain in the competition.
“Going into Kitchen HQ was completely different to cooking at home,” Tiffany admitted.
“And time is definitely a factor, but I feel like we did really well in the competition, to be honest.
“We definitely needed to stick to our plan and get the communication down pat to make sure that we didn’t struggle with the time aspect of the cook.”
Tiffany still can’t believe she had forgotten the flour in a dish she had made countless times before.
“I was just so hyper focused,” she said.
“There’s so much going on. There’s a lot of distractions in HQ.”
Even with the dessert mishap, the couple believed they had done enough to avoid elimination – until they became aware of allegations of strategic scoring.
According to the pair, another contestant had sent them a message claiming some teams had marked them down in an attempt to bring down their average total score.
“It definitely didn’t come down to flavour. It was strategy that got us out,” Tiffany said.
“We were actually still quietly confident, but unfortunately we also had some sort of inkling we were being eliminated because I’d been sent a message saying that the teams are sort of aligning,” Giancarlo claimed.
“Like trying to get us out.”
It meant the couple were not entirely surprised when the final scores were revealed.
Tiffany and Giancarlo received an average score of five out of 10 from the other teams. Combined with the judges’ scores, they finished with 26 out of 50.
Angus, who had given the couple a score of just three, was seen smirking from the balcony as the results were announced.
Meanwhile, Zac and Zoe scraped through with 27 out of 50 – just one point ahead of their rivals.
“I mean, it’s completely immoral,” Giancarlo said.
“It’s so not what a cooking competition is about and when we got eliminated, the feeling that I felt immediately was, we were cheated,” Tiffany added.
“Being strong cooks unfortunately worked against us in a cooking competition somehow. Go figure.”
Despite their disappointment over the way their time in the competition ended, the couple believe the experience has only strengthened their relationship.
“We’re very proud of how we handled ourselves – we have integrity,” Tiffany said.
“You know, we love cooking. It was about the food.
“We always let everybody know it was about the food, not about personalities.”
The couple also revealed they would be backing Mary and Golden to take out the competition, tipping the nurses as the team to watch.
Next week, the instant restaurants return, but with open feedback introduced, tensions are set to rise as contestants face even more drama around the dinner table.
