Cooks and apprentices face the chop

Meena Chhagan on the far right. Photo / Supplied

Three wannabe chefs were sent packing on MasterChef New Zealand last night and it was cruel treatment of a crayfish and a limp salad that proved Karyn Fisk, Suzanne Drummond and Mark Harvey's undoing.

The challenge involved the top six contestants being divided into two teams of three to create three seafood dishes. The biggest shock was the entry of a third team made up of ousted contestants Kelly Young, Nigel Anderson and Tracey Gunn. If they won the challenge they would be reinstated and the losing team would be out.

The Blue team were immediately in trouble when Fisk put their live crayfish into boiling water, leaving the judges horrified.

Still, even in defeat Mark Harvey was excited: "I've loved every second of it. It's been an explosion of fantastic-ness."

Meanwhile, multiple contestants were fired over on The Apprentice New Zealand, too, with Meena Chhagen and Richard Henry from the Athena team shown the door. Tensions reached boiling point within Athena when Catherine and Meena clashed, and Rich's involvement in an attempted cover-up proved his undoing. "I have no room in my company for people who try to hide things from me. You're fired," said Serepisos. With Rich gone, Chhagen blamed him for covering up the team ruction but this was not enough to save her, and Serepisos sent her packing for withholding information.