Celine and Vicky Kaponias quit My Kitchen Rules over 'food poisoning'

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A bout of food poisoning has forced mother and daughter team Celine and Vicky Kaponias to withdraw from My Kitchen Rules.

Celine spent more than two weeks in hospital after suffering the illness off set.

Vicky broke the news to the other teams at the start of Thursday night's show but she did not give a reason for the illness other than to say Celine had to go to hospital and was not well.

Celine released a statement through the Seven Network on Thursday, explaining what occurred and why she could not continue.

"Unfortunately, I had to leave MKR after getting food poisoning from eating out during time off in the competition," she said.

"It was a severe bout that saw me admitted to hospital for 15 days.

"I am so sad our opportunity was cut short due to my illness, but I want to thank everyone for their amazing support and I'm grateful for the amazing opportunity of MKR."

Even though the show unexpectedly lost a team, the series remained focused on another elimination.

Looking down the barrel of defeat is cowboy Robert Murphy who has revealed he owes the Australian Tax Office a "substantial amount of money".

The winner-take-all prize money on the series of $250,000 would help pay the bill, but Murphy appears a long way from winning after being forced into Monday's sudden death round.

Murphy and his daughter Lynzey fell well short of expectations with their spicy beef fajitas with jalepeno pico de gallo in the pub meal challenge.

"It was a little bit underwhelming, which was the problem," said judge Colin Fassnidge.

"You promised a lot and it didn't deliver."

Joining the NSW pair in the final are upbeat Queenslanders Rob McKean and Dave Evans.

Their attempt at serving butter chicken was a little bit nowhere in Fassnidge's opinion.

"What let your decision down was, obviously we had the curry flavour, you were lacking the seasoning that just liven things up," he said.

"It's the little things that let you down."

It wasn't all bad for Queensland with Mt Isa cousins Jac Bakhash and Shaz Sellings winning the round and earning immunity from the next two tasks.

AAP