One of the contestants hotly tipped to win has been given the boot from Masterchef NZ – but Robert Trathen says he doesn’t want to work in a restaurant anyway.

Auckland-based photographer Robert was the sixth contestant to be eliminated from the cooking reality show after bungling his chicken feet dish.

In their recent challenge, the budding chefs were sent on a training session at Auckland yum char restaurant China, before arriving at the MasterChef kitchen to find mystery boxes lined up at their work stations.

They faced a tough challenge: to cook four different Chinese-style dishes in two-and-a-half hours. Rob was ambitious from the start, choosing almost all the chicken feet available and leaving just one for fellow contestants; a choice which proved to be his downfall.

So how was he feeling when the judges tried his dish? "Pretty nervous through the tasting, obviously the judges weren't enjoying the food." The judges said nothing was properly cooked; “they didn't like the food at all - Ray didn't even try the chicken foot."

We caught up with him after his eviction from the show to find out about his passion for food, and why he chose those pesky chicken feet!

IF YOU HAD YOUR TIME AGAIN, WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY?

Robert: “I would do chicken feet again but I would do them for longer – they need a lot of cooking. But I’d probably get them again, why not? Simon said there would be an added bonus for whoever cooked chicken’s feet, but they didn’t show that for some reason. So I thought, ‘Right, I’m going to win this challenge and cook chicken feet!’”

WHY DID YOU HELP YOURSELF TO ALMOST ALL THE CHICKEN FEET?

Robert: “Well, the thing is they were replenishing all the stock. So after a couple of people had gone in, they replenished all the chicken, all the fish, all the meat. I went in there first and saw the chicken feet so I thought I’d finish that up, but I didn’t realise they were the only ones they had. But they kept on talking about it for a bit of drama. There were only 11 chicken feet – what was I going to do? Cook four chicken feet and have the judges laugh at me?”

ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED TO BE THROWN OFF THE SHOW?

Robert: “I am disappointed, it was a silly mistake really. I kept on telling other people to play it safe throughout the whole contest and I didn’t play it safe, I took a risk. I was disappointed because I didn’t actually get to cook what I wanted to cook, what I cook at home. My audition dish was the only thing I cooked where there were no restrictions but everything else I cooked was from recipes or from chosen ingredients. So I’m disappointed that the judges didn’t learn my style of cooking.”

MANY PEOPLE THOUGHT YOU WOULD WIN IT. WERE YOU SURPRISED TO BE EVICTED?

Robert: “I guess I was surprised, yeah. I thought I would be there a bit longer.”

WHO WILL WIN IT NOW YOU’VE GONE?

Robert: “It really could be anyone crowned; they are all just as good as each other. That’s the thing with the show. But I’ve got my favourites – we all stayed together in the house and the boys were down one end and the girls slept in the other wing, and I got to know them all quite well. So any one of the guys, really, I would be happy for any of the guys to win and they all can. Everyone is very capable.”

HAS THE EXPERIENCE PUT YOU OFF COOKING?

Robert: “When I got kicked off, I came home and cooked a meal. Nothing’s changed about it, I still cook every day.”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO COOK?

Robert: “I like cooking seafoods, and purees, and meat – I cook everything really with a modern twist. I try to cook restaurant-quality meals; what I’d like to be served in a restaurant.”

IS IT YOUR DREAM TO WORK IN A RESTAURANT?

Robert: “I wouldn’t like to work in a restaurant, I think out of all the contestants there are only a couple that would like to work in a restaurant. I would like to cook, I enjoy cooking. For Mark Sainsbury we cooked a meal for mothers of children who have cancer; we cooked for eight or nine people, me and Kirsty and Christine, so we really enjoyed that. And out of that we’ve been asked to cook for other people at dinner parties.”

Find out more about Robert’s passion for food here