Poh Ling Yeow is one of four judges on MasterChef Australia Back to Win 2025, but she’s very familiar with several of the season’s contestants.
Poh competed in the first season of MasterChef Australia in 2009, where she placed runner-up. She returned again for the first season of Back To Win, which aired in 2020, and came sixth.
MasterChef Back To Win Australia 2025 is made up of returning contestants, who’ve scored their second (or third) chance to snag the winning title. Among those competitors are Andre Ursini, who Poh competed against on Season 1, and Callum Hann, Laura Sharrard and Sarah Todd, who she went up against on the last returnee season.
Poh joined MasterChef Australia as a judge alongside Andy Allen, Jean-Christophe Novelli and Sofia Levin, and the quartet has returned for the 2025 season. The new judging panel received a warm reception from viewers for their first season, but Poh said judging her former MasterChef peers in the 2025 season was a whole different kettle of fish.
Poh’s grateful for how the MasterChef Australia Back to Win 2025 cast received her as a judge
Despite building a successful culinary career through cookbooks, TV shows, and her own food ventures, Poh told Chattr in an exclusive interview that it was “really intimidating” judging cooks that she’s competed against in the past.
“A lot of the people are people that I know quite well and that I’ve competed with in the first Back to Win season,” she said. “So I felt very like judging a peer. It feels very, very awkward.”
“It felt really awkward at the beginning of the season. I felt very scared to say what I wanted to say.”
However, Poh said that while she personally felt uncomfortable dishing out advice to seasoned professionals, she was pleasantly surprised by how well she was received by the contestants.
“The reason why I feel really comfortable about it now is that they’ve all been so gracious.”
“I think the fact that they’ve just been so kind to me and made me feel very comfortable in the role as well. So it’s very much to do with their grace as well.”
Poh said she felt less awkward judging contestants who weren’t on her season
MasterChef Australia judge’s job is to give feedback to the contestants — both negative and positive — and decide who’s eliminated from the competition.
Poh said that she felt more comfortable giving constructive criticism to the contestants who she hadn’t gone up against in previous seasons.
“Sarah came second in the last sort of fans, in the fans versus favourites, and then there’s Callum and Laura, who are all from South Australia as well. And I competed against them in Back to Win. A lot of the other contestants, I don’t know that well, because they’re from other seasons, so it didn’t feel quite as awkward.”
MasterChef Australia premieres Monday, April 28 at 7.30pm on Channel 10 and 10Play.
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