What are MasterChef UK winners doing now? One turned the trophy into a nationwide restaurant chain
The BBC has crowned an amateur champion every year since MasterChef was revived in 2005. That's 22 trophies and 22 very different afterwards — some went straight into professional kitchens, some kept the day job, and one built a restaurant group.
Thomasina Miers won that first revived series in 2005 and co-founded the Mexican chain Wahaca with Mark Selby in 2007. It has grown to roughly 18 branches nationwide, and she was awarded an OBE in 2019. No other winner has come close to that scale.
The one who built the chain
Miers spent time at Petersham Nurseries under Skye Gyngell after her win, but the turning point was a year living in Mexico. Wahaca followed, along with her own Channel 4 programmes, several cookbooks including Meat-free Mexican, and The Pig Idea, a food-waste campaign she founded in 2015.
The restaurateurs
- Mat Follas (2009) — opened The Wild Garlic, then Bramble Café & Deli in Dorset; runs foraging courses and still returns to MasterChef as a guest judge.
- Simon Wood (2015) — opened WOOD in Manchester, which was successful enough to feature on the show itself in 2020.
- Eddie Scott (2022) — now runs L'Opaline Bistrot in Beverley, East Yorkshire.
- Chariya Khattiyot (2023) — the competition's first Thai winner, a coffee roaster before the show, now behind Khao Soi By Chariya in Alton, Hampshire.
The ones who went their own way
- Peter Bayless (2006) — wrote My Father Could Only Boil Cornflakes about winning, did a stint at Le Gavroche, and works as a private chef and cookery teacher.
- Ping Coombes (2014) — teaches street food classes under the Ping's Pantry name and works the food festival circuit.
- Jane Devonshire (2016) — published two gluten-free cookbooks and became an ambassador for Coeliac UK.
- Thomas Frake (2020) — won a series that aired during the pandemic; moved into fine-dining home deliveries and recipe writing.
- Tom Rhodes (2021) — went from assistant manager at Nando's to private chef, recipe accounts, and festival appearances.
The recent champions
Brin Pirathapan took the 2024 trophy. Fishmonger Harry Maguire, 32, won series 21 on 26 September 2025, beating Claire Syrenne and Sophie Sugrue — a series broadcast after Gregg Wallace and John Torode were dismissed, with Anna Haugh judging the final two episodes.
"Champion isn't something I've ever called myself before," Maguire said after the win, per RTÉ in 2025.
Jhané Gibson won series 22 in June 2026, the first under Grace Dent and Haugh, filmed at Digbeth Loc Studios in Birmingham.
Bonus fact: the BBC put four of them back in the kitchen on 29 December 2025 for a Champion of Champions special — Natalie Coleman, Thomas Frake, Chariya Khattiyot, and Brin Pirathapan.