MasterChef Australia: The story behind Poh Ling Yeow’s bizarre nickname

The origin of MasterChef Australia fan favourite Poh Ling Yeow’s unusual nickname, ‘Train Tracks’, has been revealed.

While most people with that nickname earned it because of their metal braces, Poh’s story is quite different.

Brisbane chef Louis Tikaram, who hosted the first masterclass of the season this week, told 10 Daily the term stemmed from when the pair had worked together briefly about eight years ago.

‘I kind of knew Poh, I’ve always been a big fan of MasterChef, but we got teamed up at the Noosa Food and Wine Festival, I think it must have been about 2012,’ he said.

Louis, who is the head chef of Cantonese restaurant Stanley, was allocated the same prep kitchen as Poh and they worked side by side preparing their dishes.

She said they ‘got along like a house on fire’ despite some of the other chefs ‘ragging out on’ for being a former MasterChef contestant.

Louis observed Poh’s knife skills and saw that when she cut scallions, they weren’t fully sliced and stayed connected, which is known in the industry as a ‘train track’.