Poh Ling Yeow: Artist to TV Chef & Restaurateur

Most of my Australian listeners, and probably quite a few of my UK listeners will have heard of today’s guest on Freedom Hunters. You might have watched her come runner up in the first ever series of Australian Masterchef in 2009. Or you might have watched her subsequent TV cooking series, or made delicious dishes from one of her cookbooks. And if you’ve been to Adelaide in South Australia recently, you might have had cake and coffee at her café, Jam Face, in the Adelaide Central Market. It’s Poh Ling Yeow who I had the absolute pleasure of talking to about her career journey.

While Poh is now running her cafe and doing various media projects, she started her career in a very different way. She was a successful artist and make up artist, who decided to follow her love of cooking when she joined an at the time unknown cooking show called Masterchef Australia.

I absolutely loved talking with Poh. We talked about what it was like to be on Masterchef and how she dealt with the media and huge attention that followed it. She shared the challenges of running a bricks and mortar business, and we also pondered the question how to ensure that when your passion becomes your career, it doesn’t stop being a passion.