MasterChef runner-up among names rumoured for hosting gig

A MasterChef runner-up is one of the cooking names rumoured to take over from departing trio George Calombaris, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan. So who’s in the mix?

Poh Ling Yeow says it is flattering to be considered as a potential new MasterChef judge, but she has yet to hear from Channel 10.

Runner-up in the first season of the cooking show, Yeow’s name has been among those rumoured to take over from departing trio George Calombaris, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan.

Others mentioned include Curtis Stone, Maggie Beer and Kylie Kwong.

Poh Ling Yeow said it was a big move to part with the long-running hosts. Picture: Dylan Robinson

“I have nothing to tell you,’’ Yeow said.

“I saw (my name) was out there and I was like, ‘wow I haven’t been told’.

“It’s very flattering to be considered but I don’t like to count my chickens.

“There’s a rumour that a lot of people are pressuring for two females to be on it so it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out.”

Yeow, appearing at a Harris Scarfe event in Sydney as a cooking ambassador, said it was a big move to part with the original faces after 11 years.

“I’ve been pretty traumatised actually by the judges leaving,’’ she said.

“MasterChef as we know it has changed without them at the helm.

“I don’t know what to make of it. It’s going to be a big change because those three judges so heavily defined that brand and no one knew what it would become at the beginning.

“But I have confidence in the brand that whoever takes over will continue to do well.”

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Yeow, who was joined by fellow Harris Scarfe ambassadors Kylie Gillies, Jane Lamerton, Shaynna Blaze and Barry Du Bois, said her subsequent success with a cooking series, as an artist, actor and cafe owner, was all due to hard work.

“There is no mystique attached, it’s all hard work,’’ she said.

“I think people want to think you walk out of there and opportunities get thrown at you.”