MKR deliberately underscore the other teams out of sheer spite.

The atmosphere around the MKR dining table is one of frosty hostility verging on sheer animosity.

I can’t imagine I’d feel particularly warmly towards a group of people for whom I’d cooked a three-course meal they’d decided “belonged in the bin” and described as “murder”.

However, I might try to be slightly less obvious than Carmine and Lauren about my intention to deliberately underscore the other teams out of sheer spite.

There are so many villains on this show I don’t even know which one is the worst. Dee was a total pain in the proverbial Tuesday, while last night Carmine and Lauren were so bitter about their low score from that same night that Colin Fassnidge pulled them up on it.

The Adelaide couple believe the other teams voted strategically against them, so intended to do the same thing. Furious at being scored poorly for “one bad dish” (raw seafood, anyone?), they have decided to be uber pedantic, which had the effect of making them look incredibly petty.

“We had one failure and we didn’t get scored very well from our guest teams,” Lauren told the judges as the other contestants watched on.

“So, if these people want to play, then we’ll play. If they got an opportunity to throw us under the bus for one bad course …”

Cue the camera panning around the dinner table to everyone looking awkward/put out/disbelieving.

Lauren and Carmine served up undercooked seafood with overcooked spaghetti on their night, but found much fault with Mike and Tarq’s perfectly cooked prawns.

“Initially, when I had my first prawn I had this huge bit of garlic which had this garlicy raw kind of flavour to it which I didn’t really enjoy,” Lauren said. “And I was expecting a real kind of fresh flavoured salad and that freshness wasn’t there for me.”

Watch Lauren and Carmine on MKR… Post continues after video.

Fassnidge was onto the Adelaide couple’s injured egos.

“Are you super analysing it? Maybe which you wouldn’t have done before your restaurant?”

“If people are judging a little more harshly then I guess we’ve got to jump on that bandwagon pretty quick smart. I think there’s quite a lot of people around this table that everyone should be watching out for. So we ain’t the only ones, Colin.”

Them’s fightin’ words!

The judges were impressed with Mike and Tarq’s second dish, too, a curry. Rachel Khoo gave it an eight out of 10, while Colin Fassnidge scored it seven.

Listen to Rosie talk MKR on the latest episode of The Binge

But not Carmine and Lauren. “It’s edible, you know, no one’s gonna get sick from eating it. But yeah, it’s nothing to write home about,” opined Lauren.

Carmine and Lauren kept to their dastardly plan of “strategic scoring”, giving Mike and Tarq a five out of 10. It made no difference, though — the other teams score them properly and they end up with a score of 80.

Foiled, TV villains!