During Monday night’s season 3 “MasterChef” finale, Ha won the title, $250,000

During Monday night’s season 3 “MasterChef” finale, Ha won the title, $250,000 grand prize and a cookbook deal, beating out Josh Marks and about 100 other chefs. But that’s not what makes her so inspiring. Ha is blind — the first blind contestant on the show.

Sticking with what she knows best, Vietnamese comfort food, Ha’s three-course finale dish included crab vegetable salad for appetizer, a braised pork belly entree, and a coconut lime sorbet dessert. Marks made a lobster grits appetizer, a lamb rack entree, and a bacon pecan pie dessert.

“I think there are a lot of people who completely discounted me,” Ha told “Nightline.” “They think I’m there as a TV gimmick for ratings. People will say, ‘what is she doing? Is she going to cut her finger off?’ But I cook at home for years without vision, so if I can do it at home I don’t see why I can’t prove to everyone else I can do it on national TV.”

Week after week, the 33-year-old Houston native, who is working on her graduate degree in creative writing, managed to whip up culinary masterpieces with only her sense of taste, smell and touch to category_ide her. The judges did allow her to use her aide, Cindy, but she did not cut or taste Ha’s food.