With what seemed like hundreds of family and friends at the MasterChef Finale Viewing party on Wednesday night, the Miller family could finally share the secret that they had kept in confidence these many weeks of the show — Whitney Miller is the winner of MasterChef.

The event was held at The Alumni House, a sports bar and dining facility in Hattiesburg, where all of the numerous booth televisions, wall mounted 40- inch televisions and projector screens featured MasterChef.

The crowd was very vocal throughout the evening as Miller, competitors and family appeared on the screen. Shouts of encouragement, “That’s right!” and “You tell them girl!” were heard throughout the venue.

As boisterous as the friendly and supportive crowd was during most of the show, there was a collective gasp and then absolute silence after Miller dropped the chicken that she was cooking for the final entree in the contest.

Coach John Miller got the momentum going on screen and off when he began to cheer his daughter on. She bounced back from what could have been a crushing defeat, refocused and finished her dish with no time to spare.

Upon announcement of her victory in obtaining the MasterChef title, many hugs were exchanged and tears shed by family and friends.

Miller won the competition by out-cooking older and more experienced amateur chefs for $250,00 and a cookbook deal.

Miller said, “This is something I definitely never thought that I could win when I began this journey. Even watching this now, it just seems so surreal to me that I was in the competition and won.”

Miller said the secret of her success is determination and, as she put it, “I just cooked my heart out!”

Now that she doesn’t have to keep big secrets, she has big options to consider for her future.

Miller says, “I am working on my cookbook and we are keeping Glaze open, but as for everything else, we will just have to wait and see.”