Hastings mayoralty candidate Simon Nixon freely admits he knows nothing about cooking paua.
But at his first attempt yesterday he proved a real champion as the six candidates for the November 24 byelection too part in a My Kitchen Rules battle of the kitchen at the Royal New Zealand Show in Hastings.
The hot favourite was acting mayor Sandra Hazlehurst - not merely because she was the only woman in the race but because she seemed to know quite a bit about cooking when she spoke to the small crowd in the first stage of the mid-afternoon contest.
But she didn't get a look in against Mr Nixon, who reckoned he doesn't do much cooking "when Dorothy's away". She was also beaten by Allister Tosh, who claimed second place with his bit of tasty prime beef.
He had to overcome all odds, for among the judges was former Hawke's Bay A and P Society president Peter Tod, who earlier in the day had claimed first and third prizes in the show's Affco Best Beef in the Bay competition, and might thus have been assumed to have a leaning for the product of the land rather than that of the coastline.