Where are the previous Masterchef winners now? From Eddie Scott to Chariya ... trends now

As the 20th series of MasterChef gets well underway, viewers watch in anticipation as dozens of new hopefuls complete gruelling cookery tasks.

But while judges, chef John Torode and former fruit and veg man Gregg Wallace decide who will lift this year's MasterChef trophy, where did the 19 former winners end up after being named champion?

While most of the winners from the BBC series gave up their previous careers to pursue their love of food, there are a few exceptions who stuck with their day jobs.

Some of their faces will be familiar to new viewers as well as old, as many former winners often return to the MasterChef studio to judge current contestants. 

Here, MailOnline reveals what became of the MasterChef winners, from working with some of the UK's biggest names to topping the Sunday Times Bestseller list...

Chariya Khattiyot

Chariya Khattiyot was named MasterChef Champion, making her the 19th amateur cook to claim the coveted title on BBC One's prestigious cooking competition.

After seeing off 44 other ambitious contestants, Chariya triumphed against the exceptional remaining finalists, Anurag Aggarwal and Omar Foster.

The 40-year-old, who was a master coffee roaster before taking part in the show, has enjoyed fantastic success in the culinary world and has kept busy since being crowned champion.

She is currently opening her own restaurant, Khao Soi - a venue specialising in Asian Fusion cuisine.

Her contemporary casual dining venture is finishing the final touches to its decor and is expected to attract over 1,300 diners in April and May.

The Hampshire-based restaurant will specialise in small and big plates, serving her hungry customers a range of Katsu curry dishes.

Over recent days, she has taken to Instagram to update her 45,000 followers, showcasing plates of delicious-looking food and various snaps of her soon-to-be restaurant looking like a building site.

Her most recent post penned: 'Can't believe it's been a year already that I appeared on MasterChef UK! And see what happened in a year? I'm opening a restaurant. It's coming along nicely and thank you for over 1300 people who booked between April till May. Thank you and see you very soon.

'Oh wanna shout out for our lovely tradesmen who came and do an amazing job!! Charlie Burns from CWB carpenter, Wayne Fox from Fox Decorator, Phil from KB Electric, and some of the girl power Izzy, Charlotte, Mandy and Maria.'

During her business adventure, Chariya has also been making specialise appearance to various cooking events, such as Royal Project Festival at Siam Parakorn, Bangkok. 

Fresh from winning the competition, the professional chef also partook in a food demonstration in the UK's biggest touring celebrity food and music festival series at Hylands Park, Chelmsford.

After being announced Masterchef winner, she said: 'This is unbelievable. It means the world, the sun, the moon and everything to me. I don't think anything can top this. I'm so happy! 

'This just proves that if you dream something and you work really hard and you never give up, you can get it. That's what my grandad said to me – never give up. He would be so proud of me!' 

On the very emotional night, both judges also shed a tear as they announced this year's winner, with Chariya sweetly apologising as they all became overcome with emotion.

John said: 'Chariya's food has always been honest and from the heart. It's always exciting, it's always unusual and it's always been beautiful and addictive. 

'And not just punchy, exciting Thai flavours that we saw at the start, but also exceptional, innovative and exciting technique all the way through. A proper master.'

Co-host Wallace added: 'Chariya is outstanding and one of the best MasterChef contestants I can remember. Chariya has delighted and amazed me in equal measure. 

'Some of her creations are absolutely beautiful - almost with an artist's touch. She is one of the most creative, skilful cooks I've seen on MasterChef for a long, long time.' 

Thomas Frake

Dartford-born Thomas Frake stormed to victory in the 2020 series of MasterChef with his love of hearty dishes.

He won over John and Gregg with his refined pub-grub style which often produced crowd-pleasing meals.

However, having lifted the trophy shortly before the pandemic, and with the winning episode itself being broadcast in the first lockdown, Thomas's meteoric rise was quickly put on ice.

He told Metro shortly after his win: 'Because of the coronavirus lockdown, I still consider myself as a home cook, I might be the MasterChef Champion but I am certainly not a professional chef.'

However, when his city job put him on furlough, he put his talents to good use and teamed up with non-profit organisation Critical NHS to make meals for frontline staff and deliver them to hospitals during the height of lockdown.

He also partnered with a hospitality project set up during lockdown to deliver restaurant-quality meals and meal kits to people's doors, Finish and Feast, to give them a taste of his cookery skills from their homes.

Eventually, after several months of waiting, Thomas received his MasterChef trophy and opened it in a video he posted on Instagram.

In the clip, he said: It's been a crazy experience and it hasn't quite felt that real because of the coronavirus lockdown.

'I hadn't really had a chance to spend time with friends and family, and really celebrate.'

Now Thomas has relocated from the south east to Wiltshire where he is the owner and executive chef of The Wheatsheaf, Chilton Foliat.

He took over the site in November 2022, posting the announcement on Instagram. 

He wrote: 'I've bought a pub. I couldn't be any more excited... I don't think I could have found a more beautiful place to start life as a publican.'

Commenting on the photo, John Torode said the news was 'bloody wonderful'. 

Ping Coombes 

Malaysian-born Ping Coombes lifted the MasterChef trophy in 2014 after impressing throughout the competition with her dishes inspired by home.

At the time, she was a full-time mother who had recently been made redundant from her job. 

She once revealed that, growing up, she didn't get a chance to practice many cookery skills because her mother was so protective of the kitchen at home. 

But after moving to the UK in 2000 to study at Oxford University, she began to experiment as she learnt to cook for herself - and she never looked back. 

Shortly after winning the contest, Ping began running cookery classes in Fulham, London, teaching other amateur cooks how to master Malaysian techniques and flavours.

She also continues to make TV appearances where she shares her recipes with viewers - including teaming up with MasterChef judge John Torode when the pair reunited on his series John Torode's Malaysian Adventure.

As well as this series, Ping has appeared in cooking segments on popular TV shows such as This Morning and Sunday Brunch.

In 2016, two years after winning MasterChef, she released her cookbook Malaysia: Recipes from a Family Kitchen.

As well as her success in TV, Ping runs monthly supper clubs in Bath, called Ping's Makan Club, for which the menu changes every month.

After first offering cookery classes in Fulham, she has now upgraded to a cookery school in Wiltshire called Ping's Masak Club.

Tom Rhodes

From Nando's to MasterChef winner 2021, Tom has definitely impressed the nation with his skills in the kitchen.

Showcasing modern European recipes with Asian twists including dishes such as black sesame ice cream, he proved himself to be head and shoulders above many of his fellow contestants. 

He is now a chef who offers 'private dining experiences' in the Newcastle and Manchester area.

But Tom often posts his colourful-looking creations on Instagram - such as kale and pistachio pasta and Piri Piri chicken stew - and even shares his recipes for his 18,000  followers.

Tom is touring with the Foodies Festival this year and will be at the event in Brighton, Edinburgh and Knutsford from the end of this month.

In last year's series of Masterchef, he returned to the kitchen with his fellow 2021 finalists Alexina O'Toole and Mike Tomkins, to judge the new contestants.

Thomasina Miers 

Thomasina earned the winner title on the first ever season of MasterChef in 2005 after celebrating her love of Mexican food.

She now co-owns the restaurant chain Wahaca - which has 13 sites across the country - from London to Edinburgh.

The chef and her business partner Mark opened their first restaurant in 2007 with Covent Garden.

Thomasina said she 'fell in love' with Mexico when she travelled there at 18 years old and wanted to 'show people in the UK how vibrant and delicious Mexican food really was.'

She has even published cookery books on the cuisine, including Meat-free Mexican, which was released last year. 

But things haven't always been easy, as it was reported in 2018 that her restaurant lost £4.7million due to a norovirus outbreak - which made around 160 staff members and a quarter of their staff ill.

After the show 18 years ago, Thomasina kept up her TV presence, as she appeared on two series of Wild Gourmets with Guy Grieve on Channel 4 in 2007.

A year later, she went on to present A Cook's Tour of Spain and then in 2011, she presented Mexican Food Made Simple for Channel 5. 

The mother-of-three was also awarded an OBE in 2019 for her services to the food industry and also has a weekly column in the Guardian where she shares her recipes.

Mat Follas

He used to work in IT but his love and passion for food changed that all when Mat won MasterChef in 2009.

That same year, he decided to open one restaurant called The Wild Garlic in Beaminster, Dorset, but it sadly closed a few years later in 2013.

He opened the Bramble Cafe in Poundbury, Dorset, in 2016, followed by the Bramble restaurant, which is described as: 'Relaxed fine dining, using seasonal produce and ingredients ​foraged or grown by us.'

Mat is a fan of foraging and even offers classes to teach people about how to use the earth's resources for their dishes. 

He also owns Mure, an online liquor store which experiments with peculiar flavour combinations such as Strawberry Cup, Marmalade Whisky, and Roast Coffee and Rum.

Two of the liquors - Just Blackberry and Bitter Lemon - even won Great Taste awards last year.

The MasterChef winner has also had three books published - Fish, Vegetables and Afternoon Tea.  

You will often see him on your television screen, as he often judges food competitions and events. 

Mat has even returned back to MasterChef - but as a regular judge rather than a contestant.

Jane Devonshire 

A dark horse throughout her MasterChef competition in 2016, stay-at-home mother-of-four Jane brought her A-game on Finals Week to be crowned champion of the competition.

She was known for her love of good, hearty food you can feed your family with and won over John and Gregg with her dishes that were cooked with love.

In the final episode of the programme, Jane revealed she had secondary breast cancer following a diagnosis four years earlier.

And after being crowned champion, she said: 'I didn't want to win because of the cancer. It was liberating to win because of my cooking. My illness was irrelevant.'

After winning the programme, Jane has become a regular on the food festival circuit and travels from her home in Hampshire all around the country to demonstrate recipes to hungry audiences, including several appearances at the BBC Good Food show.

She has also teamed up with her co-finalists from the 2016 series, Billy Wright and Jack Layer, to head back to the MasterChef kitchen where the trio judged some of the new contestants' dishes.

After releasing home-cooking recipe books, Jane has turned her attention to gluten-free cooking in recent years and has published recipes focusing on dishes fit for coeliacs. She is also an ambassador for Coeliac UK.

These days, Jane can be found developing menus for private clients. 

Irini Tzortzoglou 

After a tightly-fought competition which saw an all-female final, Irini triumphed with her Greek-inspired menu, drawing on her own heritage.

The Crete-born retired banker, who was bored at home, applied for MasterChef to give herself something to do.

During her high-powered career at Piraeus Bank, she found herself with little time to cook and ended up relying on supermarket ready meals.

But after she retired and her husband John suggested she apply, Irini began practising and trained herself for more than a year before appearing on the show.

'I didn't want to embarrass myself by leaving in round one,' she told the Guardian. 

She added she spent time in Greece visiting Michelin star restaurants to see how top chefs were putting their own spin on her native cuisine, and she also brushed up on Greek MasterChef. 

Following her win in 2019, Irini published a Greek cookbook, Under the Olive Tree: Recipes from my Greek Kitchen.

Since then, she has well and truly come out of retirement, offering her cookery services for private hire and also running cooking classes.

Recently, she has begun offering cooking retreats on her native island of Crete - a seven-day trip including cooking classes, a chance to see the sights and an olive oil tasting.

As for professional kitchens, Irini does not have a permanent site of her own but she has carried out residencies in several restaurants around London. 

Simon Wood