It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week. They're right. Hi guys, welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you so much for clicking and downloading on today's episode with Polling Yoo, our newest host of Master Chef Australia, which is returning tonight on Network ten at seven point thirty. Poe was on the very first season of Master Chef Australia when it all began, where she came second to Julie Goodwin and I don't think everyone has completely gotten
over that. Since then, Australia has fallen more and more in love with her. She returned to the kitchen for Back to Win, delighted us in the Jungle on I'm a Celebrity last year, and even had a TV affair with Channel Line's Snack Masters. This new judging panel, including Poe, will mentor this season's crop of contenders through exciting challenges designed to test and develop while honing their skills at
every single turn. The competition, of course, will be as fierce as ever, with twenty two Australian home cooks assembled vying for the coveted title of Master Chef Australia winner for twenty twenty four and the grand prize of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. However, this season we'll also see a money Can't Buy prize offer with an opportunity of a lifetime in store for our twenty twenty four winner.
Poe will reveal if Julie Goodwin was jealous of her being asked to judge the twenty twenty four season and what their relationship has really been like over the years. We will get to hear what it was like walking into the kitchen as a judge for the first time and find out if being a judge has given her
an insight into how the critiques are actually televised. I will also finally find out why she wasn't asked as a judge when they rebooted the show a couple of years ago, and if saying yes to this opportunity was the reason for Snack Masters being canceled. We will talk about all of the new judges, what the new contestants are like, and I'm going to see if Poe will
actually answer the question of who's your favorite contestant. There's so much to unpack with Poe, so sit back and relax as we unpack the wonderful world of Master Chef Australia. Hi pop man, Hey, Hi, how are you.
I'm so well, how about you.
I'm excited because every year Master Chef is my winter warmer. You know, the weather gets colder in Melbourne and I need the food, you know, I need to watch people cooking it.
Yep, you can just rug up and just eat all the you know, stewy comfort foods.
Absolutely well, welcome back to the Master Chef Kitchen.
Thank you so much. Yeah, like it's it's a very.
I don't want to overstate it, but it is quite a profound full circle moment. And I've said this a lot, but yeah, it's every day that I've been in the kitchen for the past five months. I'm just changing myself for sure.
Can you describe, because this is what I wanted to know as soon as I heard that you were coming on as a host as a judge, I just wanted to be fly on the wall as you walked into the Master Chef kitchen. Can you kind of take me through what that felt like on that very first day.
Yeah, Yeah, I was really nervous and it felt because I've been top of Room before as a guest, but like being a being one of the judges is a very different thing. And I was very emotional on the day. I felt because when you walk into that kitchen, the air is thick with the hopes and dreams of the contestant, and there is something very magical and palpable about that.
And to feel that, and to not just feel.
That, but know that that's in my hand is so much to think about.
Do you do you think in any way that Julie Goodwin is a little bit jealous? Do reckon? She's sitting at home and thinking, oh my god. I mean, I know that she would be very supportive and she would love you in this job, but is there a small tier coming down from her cheek.
I can almost stay with absolute sority that she is not at all jealous.
And Julie has always walked to the beat of her own drum.
She knows exactly what she knew, exactly what she wanted out of the experience. And I feel like she's on such a different trajectory. She's just written autobiography and has just launched that. I feel like she's on such a different sort of wavelength at the moment she came back for bands and favorites?
Is that what you have to win? I think it is what it was called. Or was that the one you came back from?
No, that was I was on, Yeah, you were back to win so favorites, right, So she's.
Had a little I think she's had a little stint of it, but like she's always been nothing but incredibly encouraging and supportive of me, and you know me the same of HER's.
Why you guys have been so successful though, I mean you're both so lovely, you know, nothing but a really good friendship behind the fact that you started off this whole Mastershiff experience for Australia together. You know.
Yeah, I feel like in many ways the compedation as I watched it play out, it's something that really dawned on me that I don't think you really think about it when you're in the competition, is that you're mainly in competition with yourself, because it's so about the decisions you make on any given day when some crazy challenge is thrown at you. And I think Julie and I really understood that we were always such different cooks that we never felt like we threatened each other. It was
always just going to be, well, this is it. Whatever comes out and the wash comes out in the wash, you know what I mean? Like we were both so happy for whoever to win. And I really really mean that, even though so many people were like, oh, you know, they'll they'll always mentioned that, you know, they think that I got robbed or whatever, but you know I tooked.
A terrible chicken dish.
It wasn't I always think of Sashi and every seat, you know, like last year, I just kept thinking about Sashi. He's one of my favorite chefs that's ever been on the show. And the fact and he was eliminated, it's just proof that you can be at the top of your game. They have one bad day and it's all over.
Yeah.
Absolutely, And it was really interesting because both sevens the producers kept on saying to me, why do you keep making life so difficult for yourself.
We're only going to judge you by the brief that we've given you.
But I would just do crazy stuff like oh, you know, you have to make won dessert in thirty minutes, and I'd be like, I'm going to make you Like why would you do that?
It's so idiotic.
I just constantly did things like that, and I think it's just that thrill of being able to pull something out of the hat. It becomes a very addictive sort of behavior, and when you keep succeeding, you only learn when it's like two eight, which makes good television, Which
makes good television. But to a certain extent, I was definitely aware of that that I wanted to make good television as well, not at the expense of pretending in any way, but like I definitely made some poor choices that landed me in not winning type.
I'm here for it. You know, this might be a bit strange, and I'm a big fan of yours. I've followed you the whole way through, whether you or on. I'm a celebrity snack Masters. I go wherever Poe goes, is my saying.
So I'm thank you. I really appreciate that this might.
Be a little bit strange, but I feel like this was a long time coming for you, and I've always wanted to ask you. When they did the reboot where we lost those three other blokes and then we got the new people come in, I wondered whether or not they'd even had a conversation with you at that point, because I felt like you were an obvious choice to come in at that point to be one of the judges slash.
I didn't. I didn't have a conversation with anyone. No, I wasn't in the mix at all. I don't think. I'm not sure whether I was in the mix.
When they had the boardroom meeting, but I definitely wasn't contacted about it.
But there were a lot of rumors flying around that I was.
Did you have it in the back of your mind that at some point this would happen? Because this is my theory. Come with me on my conspiracy theory. I hate conspiracy theorists. I felt like they knew there was going to be a back to win season, and they knew they were going to do a fans versus favorites, and they felt like, oh, well, we've got those lined up and we're gonna we're gonna want Poe to do
one of those first. So maybe they wanted you to come back, as you know, in the kitchen as a competitor again before they made you a host slash judge.
No, I don't think so, because no, no, no, not at all, Because it was Jock Umel and Andy and they wanted me.
Oh no, because that was the season that I was in.
When I'm in they got you anyway.
Yeah, No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think that, and you know what, I don't think I would have been ready. Then.
I really feel like things happened for a reason. And I always talk about this, whether it's a device that I've created in my head to help me cope with all the chaos that ensy use in my life.
But I really feel.
Like I had to do a bit of copper room work first, which was Masters. Like my experience doing that I think really helped me.
Understand on that show.
By the way, I just have to jump on and tell you I loved that show so much. And I mean, does the does the fact that we didn't get a third season of Snack Masters? Was that the cause of Master Chef? Did you know that you were not going back that way?
No? This is so strange because that that finished up and had I uh, Okay, I can't talk about what show it was, but there was another show that wanted me to.
To uh that want to ask me whether I was interested in a role on the show, and the order was that I couldn't say yes to this other show because I was contracted to Snack Masters, and had I not and had I not been on Snack Masters, I would have done this other show, and that would have made me completely not able to do Master Chef.
So I think it's quite interesting how it's rolled out.
I think it's brilliant the way that it's rolled out. This is the what do they call it, the order of device. There's some sort of hippie bullshit that they.
Say, like a yeah, divine yeah. The other thing is like, I will I always bring this up.
You know.
I have to respect the fact that I am only here because of this very tragic event of Jop passing away. It was just such a such a sort of unusual series of events that led me here. But I think in that season before Back to Win, I did wonder if I was gonna get a call I'm not gonna lie, But I also was gonna say no.
Why. I just didn't feel confident doing it at all. It was just at this.
Wrong point in my life and I just did not have the confidence.
It was so resolute.
I know it sounds like such a weird thing to say. But I just knew that it wasn't the right time. I just it just felt really wrong.
This sounds like some small town girl from Adelaide kind of shit, like you know, you weren't mentally or confident enough to do it where you know, from the very moment that you stepped on to snack Masters as a host. And sorry to keep bringing it up Network ten while we talk about mester ship, but from the moment you turned up on that, it was obvious to the viewer that you have you have a real sort of a list celebrity vibe about you. There's something, oh my goodness.
Then you're really like, you're really I'm loving the I'm loving the con for.
Me every day, I'll pep you up, come on every day.
Fiction and my my my ability.
I yeah, no, no, I'm very real about well.
I'm yeah. I feel like, you know, I'm one of those people if I say, oh, I just don't know if I can do it, I really mean it. It's not that I'm down on myself.
It's just like I need I feel like I need to skill up on whatever it is because I never want to, you know, do it or badly, so I really take pride in everything that I do, and I really feel like at the time, I just don't know if I could have having said that Master Chef is such a well oiled machine.
That I if that was the case.
I'm sure they would have gotten me up to speed, you know, like they did now, Like I mean, I felt so so sort of like underprepared, Like what prepares you for this nothing? It's so it's such a huge role, you know. I just feel so swaddled by everyone, like the producers, by my co hosts, by the contestants. I just feel so lucky, like it's been it's been a real dream.
Right, But you're darling of master Chef, like as in your master Chef Royalty. So if they weren't looking after you and helping you along the way, I'd be pretty surprised. The show is about it. It's a really great show because it's one of my favorites. There's no conflict, there's something. They lift people up, do you know what I mean? So I feel like having you in there, they're always going to lift you up. They're always going to help you.
No, absolutely, yeah and completely And you know, Andy said something to me at the beginning he says, it not absolutely not to take away from the fact that you've been you know, obviously asked the performance role for a reason, but like Master Cheff is such a juggernaut that whoever's in this role will will still shine, you know. And and it actually gave me so much confidence to just be myself.
Yeah, I'm wondering if you were practicing your call and the time calls, because Melissa Leong did such a great time call, like that was one of my favorite things. Like she just would say, oh, she does the clock time call, you know what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's one of the one of our biggest jobs is to bring it, bring it with the time call.
Yeah.
And I feel like after I did Snack Masters, because we had to do a lot of those, is when I came back to do a guestie, I remember thinking, I think I nailed.
That that but so different. It felt so different to how I've done it before. I was always so tentative and they'd be like knowing more, poet more and I and I just couldn't do it.
And then when I came back after having done that, there was definitely a great training ground for me for sure.
Well, yeah, it's like picking up a few metals along the way, do you know what I mean, Like once you've got those metals on the chest. Yeah, we all right, exact. We have to quickly talk about this because I'm running out of time, But I just want to say, what can you tease me about our new chefs? What can you tell me about Jean Christophe and Sophia? What can we.
Okay, okay, Sofia and I get all like a house on fire.
She's hysterical. We crack each other up. We are so.
Similar in many ways, and we're now sort of at the point where it feels like.
I've never not known her.
She's just we finish each other's sentences off. She's always like if I if I'm talking and waving a piece of food around in my hand, next minute I know she's munching on it.
There's no hold, bar no, no hold, no is it? No?
I think that's what it is. Don't ask me. I'm terrible at those things.
I get thement and John Christov is an absolute darling. He's incredibly passionate, and I think it took us a while to understand.
No, no, not that.
But there's like a massive cultural difference with you know, their sensibilities and his classical training. He was just kind of amazed at how unorthodoxly we cook.
In Australia because I think as we don't.
Have that steep tradition in food, we borrows from so many from all our migrant cultures. I think that freaked him out a little bit and he was even a little bit maybe what's the word for it, offended.
By some of our ways.
But he's not coming back for another series. Okay, fair enough.
The sweetest guy, incretibly passionate, and he's just such a different vibe in the kitchen. I think people are going to absolutely adore him. There's going to be so many means from him because he is.
Just and he's hilarious as well.
Like he's just he's just got so many funny mannerism. He's got all his little like turn of phrases that he uses in the kitchen more than any of us, I think.
And yeah, he's sounds like he is giving chef from the Muppets vibes.
No, no, no.
He's definitely got more and more more serious than that, I think. But he's also got a really fun side to him, but yeah, he's really done the hard yards. He's got a fascinating story actually, like how he came to earn his first Michelin star and it's all he's ever known, is I think it's all he's ever known since he was like fourteen or eleven, I think really young, maybe even the eleven wow, oh yeah.
Yeah, well that we can't not talk about these contestants so very quickly. The selection of contestants is always quite interesting to me because when the show starts, they all seem like you know, normis you know what I mean, like every day Aussies that you know has nothing. By the end of the show, we become obsessed with them. Yes, can you tell me who your favorite is? And I don't give me any of this not without my daughter stuff. You can't pick your children or any of those vibes.
Do they tell you that? As the producer saying to you, don't have a sign, I don't.
No, no, I don't want to because it's not it's not no they are they are all my children.
Okay, Well that's that's that's all. Well, that's fine, that's I mean, they're going to be good though, right, that's what you can tell me, Oh.
Yeah, they're amazing.
This year, I feel like there's been a real return to sort of home cooking.
I mean, you get a few fancy.
Dishes here and there, and of course there's always you know, pressure tests to keep everyone you know, on the edge of their seats. But I love that there's a lot of different cultural cuisines this year because that's absolutely what floats my boat.
So yeah, I'm obsessed with that. I'm obsessed with good I'm obsessed with all of that cultural flavor. I mean I was a kid where my mum used to say, what takeaway do you want? You want hungry Jackson McDonald's, and I'd say, I want Indian food. Oh really Yeah, I had a real strange taste for it. I have to let you go. So the last question I ask anyone who joins this podcast is what is something from
behind the scene? And like, this's a good question for you to ask, because this is not a behind the scenes of being a contestant of Master Chef, but what's something from behind the scenes of now being.
Okay, it's a judging process.
I'm so shocked because when I was a contestant, I used to be right with conspiracy theories, I thought, but we really only judge the dish. It's not about potential, it's not about Wow Path cooks, it's not about the person.
We literally just take the dish apart and it's really we.
Has it out and sometimes it gets quite hinted.
Oh okay, well I like that. Hopefully we get to see that. I like a bit of you know, honesty. I am in your audience, my friend, and I can't wait to watch you do this show. And I will be watching anything that you do, your laundry, yoger whatever. I'm here for your mate. I'm here.
You crack up. Thank you so much. I can feel your love radiating from way over here.
Good. I hope you feel it. I hope you feel it. As a side note to you, we need to do a celebrity version again. They've already done a celebrity version, but we need to bring ev Jones into that. She can cook, and you guys have good repertoire.
So I'm trying to do we do. I know we do need to bring back for sure. I was thinking of that last night.
Actually, we'll tell We'll tell Network ten. Anyway, look after yourself. I got a run.
Thank you so much, Sir
Cheers, take care of its love by love you too.