Masterchef winner Brin’s brother tells of satisfaction at main win

The brother of newly-crowned MasterChef champion Brin Pirathapan told yesterday of their family’s pride at his triumph in the BBC One cooking reality show.

Biv Pirathapan, 33, said his younger sibling had left him, father Gopal and mother Darley, overjoyed at his culinary prowess.

They plan to welcome him back home to Chelmsford, Essex, with a huge party for family and friends at a pre-booked local venue.

Asked about his success yesterday, businessman Biv, 33, said they were bursting with pride and looking forward to celebrating his victory with him.

Biv, who runs a company selling spices from his parents’ native Sri Lanka, said: ‘Yeah, I saw him yesterday and he was very happy. I’m just off to see him again so it’s all good.’

The family were believed to be with BBC minders yesterday and were absent from the semi-detached house where Brin grew up.

But they have rigged up a welcome home banner in the driveway with two photos of Brin, bunches of red, white and blue balloons, and the caption: ‘MasterChef UK 2024 winner: congratulations.’

A neighbour said: ‘We’ve known him since he was a little boy. He’s very nice and very bright but we didn’t know he was into cooking.

‘He’s got a good business head. He used to keep chickens in the back garden and sell the eggs to my mother-in-law. His brother is successful too – he runs a spice company.

‘His parents are away with him but they are having a big party for him when they get back. Then he’s getting married in September and we’re all going to that.

‘It’s brilliant. We followed it through and we’re delighted for them. We thought about putting a bet on him to win at one point but the odds weren’t that good.’ 

Brin Pirathapan, 29, is the son of two Sri Lankan war refugees and was helped to victory by his ‘biggest supporter and toughest critic’ – his doctor fiancée Anna.

The qualified veterinary surgeon from Bristol beat 57 other contestants to be crowned victorious in the 20th series by Greg Wallace and John Torode in the final episode, which aired on the BBC on Wednesday night.

Now it can be revealed that Essex-born Brin is set to be married this summer to his beloved partner who has long been supportive of his culinary ambitions.

But fans of the chef were especially touched last night after a segment of the show revealed Brin’s Tamil parents had to flee to Britain from Sri Lanka during the country’s 26-year civil war. 

The talented chef became emotional when asked about his past, telling Masterchef producers: ‘They came to the UK because Sri Lanka was not a safe place to be.’

It is believed Brin’s family may have lost relatives in the war, which was waged between the Sinhalese-dominated government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) insurgent group.

When asked if many of his family had been lost in the conflict, he told the Times: ‘I don’t know how much I want to go into that. I think it’s my parents’ story and I’d rather leave it to them.’

Since the war, which lasted from 1983 until 2009 and led to the deaths of an estimated 100,000 people, the state has been globally criticised for its conduct due to the persecution of minority Tamils during the conflict.

Growing up in Chelmsford, Brin was immersed in Sri Lankan Tamil flavours as a child – but did not exactly take to the chef’s hat from birth.

‘I remember vividly when I was eight or nine putting pizzas in the oven for my brother and thinking I was this amazing chef,’ he told Masterchef producers.

‘I’m really lucky because I’ve got this amazing spicy culinary background from my parents.’

He added he thought himself ‘more sophisticated’ when he began prepping meals with mutiple ingredients – frankenfurters and packet noodles. 

Brin moved to Bristol to attend university, where he studied to become a vet. It is here that his culinary prowess really took off as he challenged himself to be creative with meals on a budget.

‘He does love his job but I think he’s always been much more passionate about cooking,’ Brin’s fiancée Anna told the programme.

‘It’s always been something that when he has a stressful day at work he can come home and he can cook and it makes him feel really calm and relaxed.’ 

Brin’s career as a vet may now be put on hold but arose out of a love of animals.

‘I was very academic kid. I wanted to do something medical but I thought it might be easier talking to animals than talking to humans,’ he said.

‘I love the thought of going into something with a patient that is potentially broken and hopefully coming out of it [with them] fully mended.’ 

He said that crucial skills in surgery, such as multitasking and working at speed, greatly helped him during the competition. 

‘You get pretty skilful at handling tweezers in both jobs,’ he told the Times.

Brin’s engineer father Gopal told how the family had chickens and goats to satisfy their son’s love for animals.

Now, he says, they are ‘very proud’ of his journey on the cooking competition show. 

‘We never ever expected he was going to make us this proud,’ his mother, Darley, added.

Speaking about the competition, Brin said: It’s been fantastic. It’s been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. All I know is I have to involve cooking into my future.’

In the final Brin created a winning three-course meal starting with fried capers, pickled chilli, pickled and charred shallots, orange and honey-glazed octopus with tempura mussels, herb tuilles dusted with scallop roe, an orange gel and samphire, on a romesco sauce.

The main course was spiced venison loin, beef short-rib and pickled mushroom tartlet, celeriac and miso purée, salt-baked beetroot and pak choi, served with a gochujang and red wine sauce split with a herb oil. 

His dessert featured white chocolate and cardamom and saffron cremeux, with pistachio meringue shards, whisky-poached mango, raspberry gel, pistachio crumb and a mango, lime and chili sorbet. 

Fans of the young chef were initially concerned after they saw him peering intently at a piece of paper with just 30 seconds to go in the mammoth challenge.

But Brin explained he was simply checking he had all of his ingredients on the plates.

‘I was creating between 10 and 15 separate elements for each dish. Multiplied over three courses that’s 40-odd elements so without a tick list it could go wrong.

‘With 30 seconds to go I realised the salt-baked beetroot was still sitting in its bowl of marinade. That could’ve been the difference between losing and winning.’

His dishes saw him praised by Wallace as ‘one of the cleverest talents I’ve seen’. 

Following his dramatic win, Brin can now focus on his wedding plans with his partner, Anna, who is a doctor.

During the show he joked: ‘I’m getting married next year and I don’t think it’s going be as good as today.’ 

Speaking to the Times after his win, Brin said: ‘I got in the car immediately after and rang her. I said, ‘You’re going to be happy because it got a laugh, but I may have told them the banquet was better than our wedding, which hasn’t even happened yet.’ 

‘Anna is a trouper; she found it funny and knows I didn’t mean it.’