Poh Ling Yeow reveals the cheeky tactic that got her over the line in the original season

She rose to fame on the inaugural season of MasterChef Australia back in 2009, where she placed runner-up behind Julie Goodwin.

But it turns out Poh Ling Yeow was skeptical of her own cooking abilities at the time, and used a cheeky tactic as a secret weapon on the show. 

Speaking to Freedom Hunters with Suzanne Delahunty, the 47-year-old celebrity chef joked: ‘It was just really just faking it ’till I made it on the show.’

Poh explained at the time she ‘didn’t really know how to cook a lot of dishes,’ and would rely a lot on her memory to create family favourites. 

‘It was funny because we got 10-minute phone calls a couple times a week, so all the people can speak to their families,’ she began.

‘Julie would be like, ”hi, darling”, speaking to all the kids, you know, and I would be like, “Mum, quick, just tell me that recipe real quick,”’ Poh laughed as she shared her sneaky tactic. 

Poh went on to explain that she had ‘good instinct’ for her cheeky maneuver. 

‘A lot of the things I would cook is from palate memory. I knew things went together. I knew how to make that flavour. But sometimes I didn’t,’ she explained. 

Poh added that she would cook meals for the competition based on which ingredient combinations she knew worked.

Since appearing on the Channel 10 cooking competition in 2009, Poh has published two books and hosted her own cooking series on ABC.

In 2020, the fan favourite returned to MasterChef as a contestant in its all-stars series ‘Back to Win’.

Some viewers have hit out at her constant airtime from producers and Channel 10 this year, re-naming the Back To Win series ‘The Poh Show’.