MINERS Alex and Gareth have a bevy of bikini babes to thank for inspiring them to apply for My Kitchen Rules.

The best mates, who grew up together in Mackay and now live in Maroochydore, discovered they might have what it takes to go on the reality cooking show after landing a catering job.

"We found ourselves cooking for all these swimwear models this one time and that's how we got the idea of going on MKR," Alex told APN.

"It was a tough gig. I think maybe the bikini models were tougher than Pete and Manu. On the show, you cook what you enjoy cooking and what food you like rather than catering for the table. With the models, we had to cater for them."

The Queensland cooks make their debut on the hit show, now in its seventh season, tonight.

"Definitely one of the hardest moments of my life was standing up there with him (Gareth) for the first time to hear our critiques from Pete and Manu," Alex said. "We were shaking in our boots."

The best mates hosted their instant restaurant in their hometown of Mackay but have dreams of opening their own café or bar and grill on the Coast. They hope MKR will fast-track their exit strategy from their fly-in fly-out work in the mines.

"We think there's a good market for it on the Coast," Alex said.

"I've never lived in a place where it doesn't matter what day of the week it is, people are always eating out. People are so sociable on the Coast."

The 25-year-olds promise to serve up a more sophisticated menu for their MKR debut than many would expected from a pair of coal miners.

"Picture what you think a couple of miners would create and it's the complete opposite," Alex said. "We leave our mining life behind (in the kitchen)."

Asian flavours are likely to feature in their menu and the guys said their favourite dish to cook at home was pork belly. "We'll walk into a butcher and plan on buying something else but we always walk out with pork belly," Alex said.

Alex and Gareth make up the first team from group two to cook. Also making their debut tonight are Little Mountain lovebirds JP and Nelly. MKR airs tonight at 7.30pm on Seven