Dayse Paparoto hit back against sexist comments from fellow contestants - and then she won the final.

Early on, MasterChef Brasil viewers began to complain about the way the 31-year-old chef was being treated by male competitors.

Then a Facebook user uploaded a video montage of all the times she'd had to put up with sexism on the show.

And people really started to take notice.

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In one instance Dayse is assigned to a team with two male contestants where they have to pick out specific cuts of meat.

She points out the one they need but is consistently ignored by her teammates until the judges point out the mistake.

Another time she complains about being overlooked by the team and not having anything to do.

One of the men tells her to "take a broom and sweep the floor".

That has become one of the most quoted phrases of the series and sent Brazilian social media into a frenzy after it aired.

Hashtags of support were created such as #VaiDayse (Go Dayse).

Dayse made the most of this and got herself a Twitter account so she could start having her say, mainly through the medium of memes. Lots of memes.

She loves a meme.

After her victory, Dayse's Twitter followers rose to more than 32,000. Hundreds of thousands tweeted the hashtag #GanhaDayse (WinDayse).

Speaking about her win in the final, broadcast on Wednesday, she says she was "really surprised."

She goes on to say "I'm a really insecure person... Maybe this programme will help me have more confidence in myself.

"When I entered, I didn't give myself credit, maybe the other contestants picked up on that. Then, I surprised myself. Wow, I actually know how to do something."

She responded to claims of sexism along the way and the support she's had because of this.

"I wasn't expecting this," she explained. "That people would get more angry about this than I was myself, but that happens, what's important is how you deal with it.

"If you didn't like it, fine, but people got hooked on my fight, which wasn't even my fight. The most important thing was the food and the professionalism."

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