{"id":14044,"date":"2012-09-13T05:09:19","date_gmt":"2012-09-13T05:09:19","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-09-13T05:09:19","modified_gmt":"2012-09-13T05:09:19","slug":"Blind-Chef-Christine-Ha-Crowned-MasterChef-","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=14044","title":{"rendered":"Blind Chef Christine Ha Crowned ‘MasterChef’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/strong> But that’s not what makes her so inspiring. Ha is blind — the first blind contestant on the show.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/strong><\/p>\n