Poh Ling Yeow happy to return to MasterChef as a mentor

MasterChef season one runner-up Poh Ling Yeow, who returns this season as a mentor, talks about the pressures faced by professional chefs and why she’s glad the show focuses on food and technique rather than drama outside the kitchen.

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MasterChef is one of the few reality television shows where producers have resisted the temptation to focus on relationships in an effort to lift ratings.

Now in its 11th season, the spotlight remains firmly on the food and technique and the personalities of the contestants run second to that.

MasterChef 2019 mentor and season one runner-up Poh Ling Yeow.

But that doesn’t mean producers haven’t been swayed in the past.

Marty Benson, who has been the show’s executive producer since season seven, tells Insider they did tinker with the product at one stage.

“Before my time, in season five I think, they did bow to a bit of pressure in terms of trying to change it up slightly and that really backfired,” he says.

They quickly reverted to the format that has served them well and have stayed on brand ever since.

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Benson won’t comment directly on competing reality shows such as Channel Seven’s My Kitchen Rules — which has been accused by some former contestants of being carefully edited to increase the drama — but says he wouldn’t consider moving to a style that encouraged animosity between contestants.

“Our mantra is that we play the ball, not the man,” he says.

“We’re not interested in any kind of bitchiness or nasty feuding between contestants — it’s just not what we’re about.”

There’s pressure enough on competitors as season one runner-up Poh Ling Yeow, who features tomorrow night as a mentor in the pro challenge, well knows.

Poh lost out to Julie Goodwin in the show’s first season.

She says the show that made her a household name has evolved since she battled it out with eventual winner Julie Goodwin in 2009.

“I feel like they have really honed in on knowing what the brand is and that it presents a positive message to such a huge demographic,” she says.

Admitting she doesn’t mind sitting back and indulging in some of the more salacious reality television, Poh says those formats actually help MasterChef stand out.

“I have noticed there is a lot of playing to the lowest common denominator and I think that’s one thing that makes MasterChef unique,” she says.

Now running a kitchen of her own in Adelaide, Poh knows the importance of having mentors when working in such a high-pressure industry.

Kitchens are stressful places to run and in recent years the food industry has been rocked by a number of high-profile chefs taking their own lives.

Poh says a range of factors take a toll on those running kitchens, especially in larger establishments.

MasterChef executive producer Marty Benson.

“Chefs that run quite big restaurants often don’t own them, they’re just the executive or head chef but they have to make the numbers work and so they’re responsible for a lot,” she says.

A large kitchen can be “a high stress environment because when you’re doing service, people are ingesting things you make,” Poh adds.

Even in her small cafe, which she runs with two partners, she has felt the full weight of that pressure.

“There have been times where I’ve thought I feel really alone doing this,” she says.

“My partners are all really creative so I’m lucky in that regard but I’m kind of the most experienced in terms of delivering the professional outcome of all these crazy ideas.”

The pressures of running her own kitchen has given her a better understanding of volatile celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay, even if she doesn’t agree with their methods of dealing with those working underneath them.

Poh on the set of this year’s MasterChef..

It’s so hard to keep all the cogs working towards this one goal and all it takes is one person to do one thing wrong at one end to wreck the entire dish,” she says. ”Then all that hard work leading up to it has been futile.”

While her early opinion of Ramsay wasn’t flattering, she now says it would be a dream to work and learn from someone like the foul-mouthed, short tempered Brit.

“I used to think he was such a psycho but every time I watch him on television, everything that he’s cracking the shits about absolutely makes sense,” she laughs.

“I want to do that, but I don’t because I don’t believe in treating people like that.”

MasterChef, Channel 10, Monday-Thursday and Sunday, 7.30pm