Shelina Permalloo Becomes Second Woman To Win Masterchef 2012

Shelina Permalloo has been crowned the winner of Masterchef 2012, making her the second woman to win the title in eight years.

Permalloo updated her Twitter page not long after the final aired on BBC 1 last night, saying: 'Hey everyone, HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that supported me thru this journey, much love to my favourite dudes @TomRennolds and @MasterKoj xx' The 29 year old, who is of Mauritian heritage, had been in the final with Andrew Kojima and Tom Rennolds, the two people she mentioned in her Tweet.

Speaking about her win afterwards, she said: 'I am completely and utterly overwhelmed. I never thought it was going to be me that would win. I just never thought it could happen to me.'

Throughout the series, Permalloo focused on cooking Mauritian food, which judges Greg Wallace and John Torode, increasingly fell in love with. Her winning menu consisted of an Octopus starter, mutton curry accompanied by bone marrow for the main course and dessert consisted of a mango cannelloni filled with lime curd served with a rum blamange.

The last female winner on Masterchef was Thomasina Miers, who won the show back in 2005; she has since gone on to open her own chain of Mexican restaurants and appear on numberous TV promrammes. As for Permalloo, her fans are already calling her a 'domestic goddess' - the nickname for chef Nigella Lawson. In an earlier tweet, on the day of the final, Permalloo admitted to a fan that she'd like open her own restaurant. That is looking more and more like a possibility for her, now that she has won Masterchef.