Masterchef’s Poh Ling Yeow on her biggest insecurity, her paintings and learning to love herself

MasterChef star Poh Ling Yeow never liked how she looked growing up in a Chinese family in Adelaide – but now those insecurities will be projected all over the city.

Before Poh Ling Yeow became a household name on the first season of MasterChef Australia in 2009, the TV food host had another burgeoning career as a visual artist – complete with a painted alter ego who dominated her large-scale canvases.

The Girl, as Poh named her creation, took on the form of an Asian toddler with exaggerated but adorable features which – especially when merged with symbolic goldfish and sometimes even mermaid scales – echoed the artist’s experiences of feeling like a fish out of water.

“I call her an exercise in exorcism in a way, because I hated all these features about myself growing up,” Poh says.

“I never got teased for it – I’m always very quick to point that out – it was more just this self-imposed feeling of being on the outer, even when I was in Malaysia, and wanting to fit in.”

Now, after an almost a decade’s absence, The Girl is set to return as part of the Illuminate festival, projected along Rundle St in Adelaide’s East End and in a new series of paintings that find her – like the artist – a little older and wiser.

“I used to paint her like a toddler all the time. It’s really interesting: Without me even being conscious of it, she’s totally evolved into a woman,” say Poh, who turns 50 later this year.

“I think it does speak of where I am in my life, being definitely middle-aged and having been through a few things.

“I feel very comfortable in my own skin now – I just really struggled with that my whole life. I think it’s a reflection of that. I love how I feel about myself for the first time in my life.”

Poh had “always wanted to be the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl” while growing up in suburban Adelaide after her Chinese family moved here from Kuala Lumpur – where it had been for five generations – when she was aged nine.

SA artist Poh Ling Yeow painting in her Norwood studio.

Poh Ling Yeow sketches out plans for the projection of her works on Rundle Street facades, including the former Malcolm Reid building.

As was common practice at the time, Poh adopted a Western first name, Sharon, until she was about 25.

“As much as I loved being in Australia, obviously I was different when I first came here. You want to eat a Vegemite sandwich, not fried rice, for lunch,’’ Poh said back in 2006.

“I guess she (The Girl) was developed as a cathartic act, in terms of embracing everything that I did hate about myself physically: the broad nose, the Asian eyes, the broad face.’’

Between return appearances on MasterChef, presenting her own series and operating her own market stall Jamface, Poh has had little time to devote to painting over the past 15 years, keeping her hand in mostly with drawing.
“The paintings had gotten tinier and tinier – it’s a reflection of the time constraints I had,” Poh says. “You definitely need momentum.”

An updated version of ‘The Girl’ for Illuminate Adelaide 2023. Drawings by Poh Ling Yeow.

An older version of ‘The Girl’.

Illuminate Adelaide 2023. Poh Ling Yeow working on one of her paintings featuring The Girl.

Poh Ling Yeow with one of her paintings featuring The Girl.

She has already finished filming her next TV series, which combines food and travel in Adam and Poh’s Great Australian Bites, which will screen on SBS mid-year, with fellow Malaysian-Australian chef and 2010 MasterChef winner Adam Liaw.

“We definitely got to know each other well, because it was a road trip, so we drove hours across Australia together,” Poh says.

The projected retrospective of Poh’s works had already been planned as part of Illuminate before she made the last-minute decision to paint seven new, larger works for a complementary exhibition – which will also feature limited edition prints of her past work – as part of the program.

“There’s still that trepidation and fear every time, but my way to deal with it is just to paint the canvas black. Nearly all my canvases have a black or olive green underpainting … it’s part of my process, but it also adds depth to the colour,” she says.

Poh was runner-up on the very first season of MasterChef.

‘Mermaid 3’ by Poh Ling Yeow, 2006.

‘Mermaid 1, 2006.

Poh’s projected works will feature throughout the East End from a new work specifically conceived for the former Malcolm Reid building on Rundle St – created in conjunction with Electric Canvas, famed for its previous Northern Lights displays along North Terrace – to retrospective pieces in side lanes like Union St and Ebenezer Place.

“Life has really buffed me. What I’ve learned is to always enjoy the climb and not be afraid of getting tossed around a little bit,” Poh says.

“If you are present in your grief and in the hurdles that life throws you, that’s where all the learning happens.” ■

The Girl by Poh Ling Yeow will be projected on Rundle St and the East End, with an exhibition at The Light Room Gallery, from July 7 to 23. illuminateadelaide.com