Will the other contestants score them strategically?

Danielle and Marko topped the leaderboard in the My Kitchen Rules (MKR) 2025’s Instant Restaurant phase, but their reign as frontrunners came crashing down during the pick-a-fridge challenge, which landed them in the elimination round.

The couple were up against Justin and Will and Lol and Lil, and all three teams were tasked with making a dessert. Danielle and Marko opted for a poached pear, strawberry crumble and chocolate ganache. While their presentation was impressive, Manu said their strawberry was too acidic to be in the crumble, and Colin said there were too many elements going on in their dish.

The couple were sent to the elimination round to compete against Michael and Rielli and told Chattr their fall from grace was a tough reality check.

“It was definitely very humbling and unexpected,” Marko said. “I think with our dessert, we wanted to make a statement. And instead of making a statement, we got ourselves kind of locked in at the bottom. So now we’ve got to fight for our lives to make sure we don’t go home.”

Danielle said that looking back at their dessert choice, she wishes they had chosen a more straightforward dish.

“We did too much,” she said. “We wanted to try and show lots of different techniques and that we could do a couple of different things, but that kind of backfired in our situation. One of the judges mentioned that we gave them two desserts instead of one.”
Danielle and Marko. Image: Seven.

Do Danielle and Marko think contestants will score them strategically?

The elimination round will be judged by both the contestants’ fellow competitors — and Manu and Colin, and Danielle and Marko admitted that they’re concerned the other team will score them strategically.

“We are almost expecting people to be a little bit strategic, because I think we’re a much bigger threat than Michael and Rielli, but that just means that we have to be undeniable, and we have to be levels above them, and I think we can do that,” he said.

While some of the contestants may have scored strategically so far, Danielle said that he and Marko would never consider taking that route.

“Throughout the whole competition, something we’ve prided ourselves on, regardless of where we are, at the top, at the bottom, is that we will not strategically score, we will score the food on how we feel about it, and that’s all. We don’t really care if someone’s a way better cook than us and they deserve a ten, then they deserve a ten.”