SLIPPERY ROCK — A mystery box full of unfamiliar ingredients and a skills challenge that focused on one of his least favorite foods wasn’t enough to keep Nathan Barnhouse from advancing yet again on the televised cooking competition “MasterChef.”

---- The former Slippery Rock resident survived another double elimination week on the show, which aired Wednesday evening, to make it into the final group of seven contestants vying for a cash prize and a book deal.

---- Barnhouse survived the night’s first episode, which put contestants through back-to-back challenges, despite being stumped by a mystery box full of “fancy” ingredients he’d never seen before.

---- “I knew lamb. That’s the only ingredient I knew,” he said.

---- In the follow-up challenge, Barnhouse was tasked with butchering, cleaning and cooking a salmon for the judges.

---- “I definitely panicked a little bit,” faced with that task, he said. But his beautifully-plated salmon passed muster with the judges despite being slightly overcooked, and Barnhouse moved on to the night’s skills test — a potato challenge.

---- It was a cook-off that asked Barnhouse to make a dish he’s never liked: french fries.

---- “I still don’t like french fries; they’re nasty,” he said. “I don’t know. It’s the concept. Who wants a potato soaked in oil? There’s so many other, nice ways to eat a potato.”

---- Despite not caring for the food himself, Barnhouse’s french fries were good enough to take him out of the potential pool of cuts for the rest of the episode. He was consigned to observing from the balcony while other contestants competed to avoid being cut.

---- “It was amazing, but I have to be honest. Being up on that balcony was the most boring thing ever,” he said.”

---- “MasterChef” will air another double episode next Wednesday at 8 p.m. on Fox TV.