MasterChef winner reveals kitchen disasters

A MasterChef winner has admitted she succumbs to kitchen disasters "all day, every day".

Shelina Permalloo, from Southampton, won the cookery show in 2012, with judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace saying she brought "sunshine to a plate".

She has since published cookery books, opened a restaurant and returned to the programme as a guest judge.

But the British Mauritian, who has made her name promoting Mauritian food recipes to the masses, said all chefs were prone to making mistakes, especially when trying to finesse new recipes.

Permalloo told the BBC's Rena Annobil "just because we cook for a living it doesn’t mean it’s less problematic - I think it’s actually probably worse".

"It’s like a big ego drop because we think we’re good chefs and then something terrible happens in the kitchen," she said.

"But it happens all the time, especially when I’m recipe testing. I recipe test every day for clients and corporates or for whoever’s commissioned me, and trying to fine tune certain recipes that we do every day are probably the hardest."

She says even writing down a rice recipe is "the trickiest".

"Most of that is just by eye, memory, smell and taste, and someone says ‘tell me how many grams of rice you’ve used’. And you’re like... ‘a handful’."

Permalloo's winning menu on MasterChef included an octopus salad for starter, mutton curry for main and a dessert of mango cannelloni filled with lime curd.

"When I was doing the show I genuinely didn’t think that my food was good enough," she said.

"There wasn’t anyone cooking my food in the food arena in the UK at the time… so it was a real shock to the system when John and Gregg announced me as the winner."

She said continuing to create the food of her heritage kept her "grounded".

"I think the first time I went to Mauritius I was 11 years old," she explained.

"So in that time between zero to 11 food was a thing that held me close to my culture."

Permalloo will be at Winchester Foodies Festival on Saturday performing a cooking demonstration.

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