Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week. They're right. Hi guys,
Speaker 1: welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you
Speaker 1: so much for clicking and downloading on today's episode with
Speaker 1: Polling Yoo, our newest host of Master Chef Australia, which
Speaker 1: is returning tonight on Network ten at seven point thirty.
Speaker 1: Poe was on the very first season of Master Chef
Speaker 1: Australia when it all began, where she came second to
Speaker 1: Julie Goodwin and I don't think everyone has completely gotten
Speaker 1: over that. Since then, Australia has fallen more and more
Speaker 1: in love with her. She returned to the kitchen for
Speaker 1: Back to Win, delighted us in the Jungle on I'm
Speaker 1: a Celebrity last year, and even had a TV affair
Speaker 1: with Channel Line's Snack Masters. This new judging panel, including Poe,
Speaker 1: will mentor this season's crop of contenders through exciting challenges
Speaker 1: designed to test and develop while honing their skills at
Speaker 1: every single turn. The competition, of course, will be as
Speaker 1: fierce as ever, with twenty two Australian home cooks assembled
Speaker 1: vying for the coveted title of Master Chef Australia winner
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty four and the grand prize of two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand dollars. However, this season we'll also
Speaker 1: see a money Can't Buy prize offer with an opportunity
Speaker 1: of a lifetime in store for our twenty twenty four winner.
Speaker 1: Poe will reveal if Julie Goodwin was jealous of her
Speaker 1: being asked to judge the twenty twenty four season and
Speaker 1: what their relationship has really been like over the years.
Speaker 1: We will get to hear what it was like walking
Speaker 1: into the kitchen as a judge for the first time
Speaker 1: and find out if being a judge has given her
Speaker 1: an insight into how the critiques are actually televised. I
Speaker 1: will also finally find out why she wasn't asked as
Speaker 1: a judge when they rebooted the show a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, and if saying yes to this opportunity was
Speaker 1: the reason for Snack Masters being canceled. We will talk
Speaker 1: about all of the new judges, what the new contestants
Speaker 1: are like, and I'm going to see if Poe will
Speaker 1: actually answer the question of who's your favorite contestant. There's
Speaker 1: so much to unpack with Poe, so sit back and
Speaker 1: relax as we unpack the wonderful world of Master Chef Australia.
Speaker 1: Hi pop man, Hey, Hi, how are you.
Speaker 2: I'm so well, how about you.
Speaker 1: I'm excited because every year Master Chef is my winter warmer.
Speaker 1: You know, the weather gets colder in Melbourne and I
Speaker 1: need the food, you know, I need to watch people
Speaker 1: cooking it.
Speaker 3: Yep, you can just rug up and just eat all
Speaker 3: the you know, stewy comfort foods.
Speaker 1: Absolutely well, welcome back to the Master Chef Kitchen.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Yeah, like it's it's a very.
Speaker 3: I don't want to overstate it, but it is quite
Speaker 3: a profound full circle moment. And I've said this a lot,
Speaker 3: but yeah, it's every day that I've been in the
Speaker 3: kitchen for the past five months. I'm just changing myself
Speaker 3: for sure.
Speaker 1: Can you describe, because this is what I wanted to
Speaker 1: know as soon as I heard that you were coming
Speaker 1: on as a host as a judge, I just wanted
Speaker 1: to be fly on the wall as you walked into
Speaker 1: the Master Chef kitchen. Can you kind of take me
Speaker 1: through what that felt like on that very first day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, I was really nervous and it felt because
Speaker 3: I've been top of Room before as a guest, but
Speaker 3: like being a being one of the judges is a
Speaker 3: very different thing. And I was very emotional on the day.
Speaker 3: I felt because when you walk into that kitchen, the
Speaker 3: air is thick with the hopes and dreams of the contestant,
Speaker 3: and there is something very magical and palpable about that.
Speaker 2: And to feel that, and to not just feel.
Speaker 3: That, but know that that's in my hand is so
Speaker 3: much to think about.
Speaker 1: Do you do you think in any way that Julie
Speaker 1: Goodwin is a little bit jealous? Do reckon? She's sitting
Speaker 1: at home and thinking, oh my god. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know that she would be very supportive and she would
Speaker 1: love you in this job, but is there a small
Speaker 1: tier coming down from her cheek.
Speaker 3: I can almost stay with absolute sority that she is
Speaker 3: not at all jealous.
Speaker 2: And Julie has always walked to the beat of her
Speaker 2: own drum.
Speaker 3: She knows exactly what she knew, exactly what she wanted
Speaker 3: out of the experience. And I feel like she's on
Speaker 3: such a different trajectory. She's just written autobiography and has
Speaker 3: just launched that. I feel like she's on such a
Speaker 3: different sort of wavelength at the moment she came back
Speaker 3: for bands and favorites?
Speaker 1: Is that what you have to win? I think it
Speaker 1: is what it was called. Or was that the one
Speaker 1: you came back from?
Speaker 2: No, that was I was on, Yeah, you were back
Speaker 2: to win so favorites, right, So she's.
Speaker 3: Had a little I think she's had a little stint
Speaker 3: of it, but like she's always been nothing but incredibly
Speaker 3: encouraging and supportive of me, and you know me the
Speaker 3: same of HER's.
Speaker 1: Why you guys have been so successful though, I mean
Speaker 1: you're both so lovely, you know, nothing but a really
Speaker 1: good friendship behind the fact that you started off this
Speaker 1: whole Mastershiff experience for Australia together. You know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like in many ways the compedation as
Speaker 3: I watched it play out, it's something that really dawned
Speaker 3: on me that I don't think you really think about
Speaker 3: it when you're in the competition, is that you're mainly
Speaker 3: in competition with yourself, because it's so about the decisions
Speaker 3: you make on any given day when some crazy challenge
Speaker 3: is thrown at you. And I think Julie and I
Speaker 3: really understood that we were always such different cooks that
Speaker 3: we never felt like we threatened each other. It was
Speaker 3: always just going to be, well, this is it. Whatever
Speaker 3: comes out and the wash comes out in the wash,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean? Like we were both so
Speaker 3: happy for whoever to win. And I really really mean that,
Speaker 3: even though so many people were like, oh, you know,
Speaker 3: they'll they'll always mentioned that, you know, they think that
Speaker 3: I got robbed or whatever, but you know I tooked.
Speaker 2: A terrible chicken dish.
Speaker 1: It wasn't I always think of Sashi and every seat,
Speaker 1: you know, like last year, I just kept thinking about Sashi.
Speaker 1: He's one of my favorite chefs that's ever been on
Speaker 1: the show. And the fact and he was eliminated, it's
Speaker 1: just proof that you can be at the top of
Speaker 1: your game. They have one bad day and it's all over.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And it was really interesting because both sevens the
Speaker 3: producers kept on saying to me, why do you keep
Speaker 3: making life so difficult for yourself.
Speaker 2: We're only going to judge you by the brief that
Speaker 2: we've given you.
Speaker 3: But I would just do crazy stuff like oh, you know,
Speaker 3: you have to make won dessert in thirty minutes, and
Speaker 3: I'd be like, I'm going to make you Like why
Speaker 3: would you do that?
Speaker 2: It's so idiotic.
Speaker 3: I just constantly did things like that, and I think
Speaker 3: it's just that thrill of being able to pull something
Speaker 3: out of the hat. It becomes a very addictive sort
Speaker 3: of behavior, and when you keep succeeding, you only learn
Speaker 3: when it's like two eight, which makes good television, Which
Speaker 3: makes good television. But to a certain extent, I was
Speaker 3: definitely aware of that that I wanted to make good
Speaker 3: television as well, not at the expense of pretending in
Speaker 3: any way, but like I definitely made some poor choices
Speaker 3: that landed me in not winning type.
Speaker 1: I'm here for it. You know, this might be a
Speaker 1: bit strange, and I'm a big fan of yours. I've
Speaker 1: followed you the whole way through, whether you or on.
Speaker 1: I'm a celebrity snack Masters. I go wherever Poe goes,
Speaker 1: is my saying.
Speaker 2: So I'm thank you. I really appreciate that this might.
Speaker 1: Be a little bit strange, but I feel like this
Speaker 1: was a long time coming for you, and I've always
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you. When they did the reboot where
Speaker 1: we lost those three other blokes and then we got
Speaker 1: the new people come in, I wondered whether or not
Speaker 1: they'd even had a conversation with you at that point,
Speaker 1: because I felt like you were an obvious choice to
Speaker 1: come in at that point to be one of the
Speaker 1: judges slash.
Speaker 2: I didn't. I didn't have a conversation with anyone. No,
Speaker 2: I wasn't in the mix at all. I don't think.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure whether I was in the mix.
Speaker 3: When they had the boardroom meeting, but I definitely wasn't
Speaker 3: contacted about it.
Speaker 2: But there were a lot of rumors flying around that
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: Did you have it in the back of your mind
Speaker 1: that at some point this would happen? Because this is
Speaker 1: my theory. Come with me on my conspiracy theory. I
Speaker 1: hate conspiracy theorists. I felt like they knew there was
Speaker 1: going to be a back to win season, and they
Speaker 1: knew they were going to do a fans versus favorites,
Speaker 1: and they felt like, oh, well, we've got those lined
Speaker 1: up and we're gonna we're gonna want Poe to do
Speaker 1: one of those first. So maybe they wanted you to
Speaker 1: come back, as you know, in the kitchen as a
Speaker 1: competitor again before they made you a host slash judge.
Speaker 3: No, I don't think so, because no, no, no, not
Speaker 3: at all, Because it was Jock Umel and Andy and
Speaker 3: they wanted me.
Speaker 2: Oh no, because that was the season that I was in.
Speaker 1: When I'm in they got you anyway.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I don't think so. I don't think so.
Speaker 2: I think that, and you know what, I don't think
Speaker 2: I would have been ready. Then.
Speaker 3: I really feel like things happened for a reason. And
Speaker 3: I always talk about this, whether it's a device that
Speaker 3: I've created in my head to help me cope with
Speaker 3: all the chaos that ensy use in my life.
Speaker 2: But I really feel.
Speaker 3: Like I had to do a bit of copper room
Speaker 3: work first, which was Masters. Like my experience doing that
Speaker 3: I think really helped me.
Speaker 2: Understand on that show.
Speaker 1: By the way, I just have to jump on and
Speaker 1: tell you I loved that show so much. And I mean,
Speaker 1: does the does the fact that we didn't get a
Speaker 1: third season of Snack Masters? Was that the cause of
Speaker 1: Master Chef? Did you know that you were not going
Speaker 1: back that way?
Speaker 2: No? This is so strange because that that finished up
Speaker 2: and had I uh, Okay, I can't talk about what
Speaker 2: show it was, but there was another show that wanted
Speaker 2: me to.
Speaker 3: To uh that want to ask me whether I was
Speaker 3: interested in a role on the show, and the order
Speaker 3: was that I couldn't say yes to this other show
Speaker 3: because I was contracted to Snack Masters, and had I
Speaker 3: not and had I not been on Snack Masters, I
Speaker 3: would have done this other show, and that would have
Speaker 3: made me completely not able to do Master Chef.
Speaker 2: So I think it's quite interesting how it's rolled out.
Speaker 1: I think it's brilliant the way that it's rolled out.
Speaker 1: This is the what do they call it, the order
Speaker 1: of device. There's some sort of hippie bullshit that they.
Speaker 3: Say, like a yeah, divine yeah. The other thing is like,
Speaker 3: I will I always bring this up.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I have to respect the fact that I am only
Speaker 3: here because of this very tragic event of Jop passing away.
Speaker 3: It was just such a such a sort of unusual
Speaker 3: series of events that led me here. But I think
Speaker 3: in that season before Back to Win, I did wonder
Speaker 3: if I was gonna get a call I'm not gonna lie,
Speaker 3: But I also was gonna say no.
Speaker 2: Why. I just didn't feel confident doing it at all.
Speaker 2: It was just at this.
Speaker 3: Wrong point in my life and I just did not
Speaker 3: have the confidence.
Speaker 2: It was so resolute.
Speaker 3: I know it sounds like such a weird thing to say.
Speaker 3: But I just knew that it wasn't the right time.
Speaker 3: I just it just felt really wrong.
Speaker 1: This sounds like some small town girl from Adelaide kind
Speaker 1: of shit, like you know, you weren't mentally or confident
Speaker 1: enough to do it where you know, from the very
Speaker 1: moment that you stepped on to snack Masters as a host.
Speaker 1: And sorry to keep bringing it up Network ten while
Speaker 1: we talk about mester ship, but from the moment you
Speaker 1: turned up on that, it was obvious to the viewer
Speaker 1: that you have you have a real sort of a
Speaker 1: list celebrity vibe about you. There's something, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2: Then you're really like, you're really I'm loving the I'm
Speaker 2: loving the con for.
Speaker 1: Me every day, I'll pep you up, come on every day.
Speaker 2: Fiction and my my my ability.
Speaker 3: I yeah, no, no, I'm very real about well.
Speaker 2: I'm yeah. I feel like, you know, I'm one of
Speaker 2: those people if I say, oh, I just don't know
Speaker 2: if I can do it, I really mean it. It's
Speaker 2: not that I'm down on myself.
Speaker 3: It's just like I need I feel like I need
Speaker 3: to skill up on whatever it is because I never
Speaker 3: want to, you know, do it or badly, so I
Speaker 3: really take pride in everything that I do, and I
Speaker 3: really feel like at the time, I just don't know
Speaker 3: if I could have having said that Master Chef is
Speaker 3: such a well oiled machine.
Speaker 2: That I if that was the case.
Speaker 3: I'm sure they would have gotten me up to speed,
Speaker 3: you know, like they did now, Like I mean, I
Speaker 3: felt so so sort of like underprepared, Like what prepares
Speaker 3: you for this nothing? It's so it's such a huge role,
Speaker 3: you know. I just feel so swaddled by everyone, like
Speaker 3: the producers, by my co hosts, by the contestants. I
Speaker 3: just feel so lucky, like it's been it's been a
Speaker 3: real dream.
Speaker 1: Right, But you're darling of master Chef, like as in
Speaker 1: your master Chef Royalty. So if they weren't looking after
Speaker 1: you and helping you along the way, I'd be pretty surprised.
Speaker 1: The show is about it. It's a really great show
Speaker 1: because it's one of my favorites. There's no conflict, there's something.
Speaker 1: They lift people up, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So I feel like having you in there, they're always
Speaker 1: going to lift you up. They're always going to help you.
Speaker 3: No, absolutely, yeah and completely And you know, Andy said
Speaker 3: something to me at the beginning he says, it not
Speaker 3: absolutely not to take away from the fact that you've
Speaker 3: been you know, obviously asked the performance role for a reason,
Speaker 3: but like Master Cheff is such a juggernaut that whoever's
Speaker 3: in this role will will still shine, you know. And
Speaker 3: and it actually gave me so much confidence to just
Speaker 3: be myself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm wondering if you were practicing your call and
Speaker 1: the time calls, because Melissa Leong did such a great
Speaker 1: time call, like that was one of my favorite things.
Speaker 1: Like she just would say, oh, she does the clock
Speaker 1: time call, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's one of the one of our
Speaker 3: biggest jobs is to bring it, bring it with the
Speaker 3: time call.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I feel like after I did Snack Masters, because
Speaker 3: we had to do a lot of those, is when
Speaker 3: I came back to do a guestie, I remember thinking,
Speaker 3: I think I nailed.
Speaker 2: That that but so different. It felt so different to
Speaker 2: how I've done it before. I was always so tentative
Speaker 2: and they'd be like knowing more, poet more and I
Speaker 2: and I just couldn't do it.
Speaker 3: And then when I came back after having done that,
Speaker 3: there was definitely a great training ground for me for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, it's like picking up a few metals along
Speaker 1: the way, do you know what I mean, Like once
Speaker 1: you've got those metals on the chest. Yeah, we all right, exact.
Speaker 1: We have to quickly talk about this because I'm running
Speaker 1: out of time, But I just want to say, what
Speaker 1: can you tease me about our new chefs? What can
Speaker 1: you tell me about Jean Christophe and Sophia? What can we.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, Sofia and I get all like a house
Speaker 3: on fire.
Speaker 2: She's hysterical. We crack each other up. We are so.
Speaker 3: Similar in many ways, and we're now sort of at
Speaker 3: the point where it feels like.
Speaker 2: I've never not known her.
Speaker 3: She's just we finish each other's sentences off. She's always
Speaker 3: like if I if I'm talking and waving a piece
Speaker 3: of food around in my hand, next minute I know
Speaker 3: she's munching on it.
Speaker 2: There's no hold, bar no, no hold, no is it? No?
Speaker 1: I think that's what it is. Don't ask me. I'm
Speaker 1: terrible at those things.
Speaker 3: I get thement and John Christov is an absolute darling.
Speaker 3: He's incredibly passionate, and I think it took us a
Speaker 3: while to understand.
Speaker 2: No, no, not that.
Speaker 3: But there's like a massive cultural difference with you know,
Speaker 3: their sensibilities and his classical training. He was just kind
Speaker 3: of amazed at how unorthodoxly we cook.
Speaker 2: In Australia because I think as we don't.
Speaker 3: Have that steep tradition in food, we borrows from so
Speaker 3: many from all our migrant cultures. I think that freaked
Speaker 3: him out a little bit and he was even a
Speaker 3: little bit maybe what's the word for it, offended.
Speaker 2: By some of our ways.
Speaker 1: But he's not coming back for another series. Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 3: The sweetest guy, incretibly passionate, and he's just such a
Speaker 3: different vibe in the kitchen. I think people are going
Speaker 3: to absolutely adore him. There's going to be so many
Speaker 3: means from him because he is.
Speaker 2: Just and he's hilarious as well.
Speaker 3: Like he's just he's just got so many funny mannerism.
Speaker 3: He's got all his little like turn of phrases that
Speaker 3: he uses in the kitchen more than any of us,
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 1: And yeah, he's sounds like he is giving chef from
Speaker 1: the Muppets vibes.
Speaker 2: No, no, no.
Speaker 3: He's definitely got more and more more serious than that,
Speaker 3: I think. But he's also got a really fun side
Speaker 3: to him, but yeah, he's really done the hard yards.
Speaker 3: He's got a fascinating story actually, like how he came
Speaker 3: to earn his first Michelin star and it's all he's
Speaker 3: ever known, is I think it's all he's ever known
Speaker 3: since he was like fourteen or eleven, I think really young,
Speaker 3: maybe even the eleven wow, oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that we can't not talk about these contestants
Speaker 1: so very quickly. The selection of contestants is always quite
Speaker 1: interesting to me because when the show starts, they all
Speaker 1: seem like you know, normis you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: like every day Aussies that you know has nothing. By
Speaker 1: the end of the show, we become obsessed with them. Yes,
Speaker 1: can you tell me who your favorite is? And I
Speaker 1: don't give me any of this not without my daughter stuff.
Speaker 1: You can't pick your children or any of those vibes.
Speaker 1: Do they tell you that? As the producer saying to you,
Speaker 1: don't have a sign, I don't.
Speaker 3: No, no, I don't want to because it's not it's
Speaker 3: not no they are they are all my children.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well that's that's that's all. Well, that's fine, that's
Speaker 1: I mean, they're going to be good though, right, that's
Speaker 1: what you can tell me, Oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're amazing.
Speaker 3: This year, I feel like there's been a real return
Speaker 3: to sort of home cooking.
Speaker 2: I mean, you get a few fancy.
Speaker 3: Dishes here and there, and of course there's always you know,
Speaker 3: pressure tests to keep everyone you know, on the edge
Speaker 3: of their seats. But I love that there's a lot
Speaker 3: of different cultural cuisines this year because that's absolutely what
Speaker 3: floats my boat.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm obsessed with that. I'm obsessed with good
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with all of that cultural flavor. I mean
Speaker 1: I was a kid where my mum used to say,
Speaker 1: what takeaway do you want? You want hungry Jackson McDonald's,
Speaker 1: and I'd say, I want Indian food. Oh really Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had a real strange taste for it. I have
Speaker 1: to let you go. So the last question I ask
Speaker 1: anyone who joins this podcast is what is something from
Speaker 1: behind the scene? And like, this's a good question for
Speaker 1: you to ask, because this is not a behind the
Speaker 1: scenes of being a contestant of Master Chef, but what's
Speaker 1: something from behind the scenes of now being.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's a judging process.
Speaker 3: I'm so shocked because when I was a contestant, I
Speaker 3: used to be right with conspiracy theories, I thought, but
Speaker 3: we really only judge the dish. It's not about potential,
Speaker 3: it's not about Wow Path cooks, it's not about the person.
Speaker 2: We literally just take the dish apart and it's really we.
Speaker 3: Has it out and sometimes it gets quite hinted.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, well I like that. Hopefully we get to
Speaker 1: see that. I like a bit of you know, honesty.
Speaker 1: I am in your audience, my friend, and I can't
Speaker 1: wait to watch you do this show. And I will
Speaker 1: be watching anything that you do, your laundry, yoger whatever.
Speaker 1: I'm here for your mate. I'm here.
Speaker 2: You crack up. Thank you so much. I can feel
Speaker 2: your love radiating from way over here.
Speaker 1: Good. I hope you feel it. I hope you feel it.
Speaker 1: As a side note to you, we need to do
Speaker 1: a celebrity version again. They've already done a celebrity version,
Speaker 1: but we need to bring ev Jones into that. She
Speaker 1: can cook, and you guys have good repertoire.
Speaker 2: So I'm trying to do we do. I know we
Speaker 2: do need to bring back for sure. I was thinking
Speaker 2: of that last night.
Speaker 1: Actually, we'll tell We'll tell Network ten. Anyway, look after yourself.
Speaker 1: I got a run.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Sir
Speaker 1: Cheers, take care of its love by love you too.