Nathan Barnhouse’s hopes of winning a book deal and grand prize on Fox’s “MasterChef” are still alive, but cooking two dishes that hearkened back to his time as a missionary in Africa came at a price this week.

Barnhouse, 20, is a Slippery Rock native who in 2011 moved to Zambia, Africa, with his parents, Dave and Maggie Barnhouse. The family had lived in Slippery Rock for more than a decade — Dave Barnhouse was the pastor of Slippery Rock Baptist Church — before the move, which the Barnhouses say changed their lives.

Today the Barnhouses run an orphanage and travel to villages preaching, teaching and offering basic medical care. Nathan’s time in the country was spent starting children’s programs in various “bush churches” and cooking with Zambian women. His parents say what characterized his time in Africa was a genuine desire to do good work.

“Nathan has a sincere concern for those around him, whether he was treating cook fire burns on a small child, having Bible study with the teen boys, or changing bandages on the foot of a dear lady that was wounded while working on her farm,” the Barnhouses wrote, responding to questions via e-mail.

Nathan returned to the States in 2014 and decided last year to audition for MasterChef. He’s made a name for himself on the show with his snappy cooking and a penchant for sporting bow ties during the competition.

This week it was less about Barnhouse’s fashion and more about his time in Zambia, where he taught Sunday school and learned about the country’s culinary traditions — something that helped him survive two challenges and a double elimination week on the show.

The first challenge required contestants to create a meal for a family of four with just $20, a prospect that reminded Barnhouse of his three years in Zambia.

“I got really excited,” he said. “I’m used to cooking in Africa, where there’s not a lot of money and not a lot of ingredients, so you have to make due.”

He decided to riff off a classic Zambian supper: Fried chicken and nshima — a porridge made with maize or corn meal that’s boiled to the consistency of wet cement and served with cabbage boiled in oil.

Barnhouse’s version used cheesy grits boiled in chicken broth and stewed tomato relish served on a kale leaf. But he got so wrapped up in his dish that he forgot to plate his chicken until it was almost too late. With 15 seconds left Barnhouse ended up using his bare hands, badly burning three fingers on his right hand.

The second challenge of the night asked contestants to make a meal using offal — the undesirable parts of animals.

Barnhouse had to make a meal using pig tails, and again he thought of Africa, where familial hierarchies often dictate what people get to eat.

“The pig tail, that’s something you give the youngest kid to chew on for awhile,” he said.

Barnhouse decided to make a pulled pork-style sandwich and a spicy, Cajun style potato salad for the judges, complete with a homemade barbecue sauce that had the judges complimenting it as the best they’d ever had.

Barnhouse’s pig tail came out chewy — it needed more time to cook, he said — but with his sauce getting high marks from the panel, he thought that he would stay alive for another week.

“It was really high praise; that’s what made me comfortable,” he said.

In the end, two contestants, Diana Bilow, a 24-year-old server from Plainfield, Ill., and D’Andrew Balaoing, a 25-year-old bartender from Las Vegas, Nev., went home.

Barnhouse and 12 other contestants continue to chase a $250,000 grand prize and a cookbook deal on MasterChef, which airs at 8 p.m. Wednesdays.