A FORMER Brunel University student and food enthusiast is this year’s MasterChef champion.

Shelina Permalloo, 29, won the BBC title after competing for eight weeks. She is the first woman to win the competition in seven years, having received great praise from judges John Torode and Greg Wallace throughout the competition.

Prior to her appearance on the show, though, Shelina cooked only for her friends in student homes at Brunel.

She lived in Mill Hall in Cleveland Road, Uxbridge, while studying for her psychology degree and often treated her friends to her distinctive Mauritian cuisine.

She said: “I was always cooking for my friends. We lived in Northolt for our final year and I was always making stuff up out of whatever we had left in the cupboard—just spicing it up a bit!”

Having graduated from Brunel in 2004, Shelina now lives in Tooting but has taken her Brunel experience with her.

She credits he mother for her love of cooking. “I’m basically her sous chef,” said Shelina. “She taught me to cook by intuition, never by using scales, always by sight and taste. So, I developed a strong palate from a young age.”

That heightened sense of taste and good practice helped her scoop the TV prize.

She now hopes to open her own restaurant to raise the profile of Mauritian food in the UK.

The full interview was conducted by Rachel Turvey, editor of Brunel University’s Express magazine.