MasterChef Australia judge and culinary icon Poh Ling Yeow has called out online trolls who target the contestants and judging panel ahead of the 2026 season.
There’s no doubt that MasterChef Australia has an extremely passionate fan base. But unfortunately, with a lot of love comes a lot of hate.
Just last year, MasterChef Australia: Back To Win‘s Laura Sharrad was hit with a barrage of hate after she was crowned winner of the 2025 competition, with some folks claiming that the judges favoured her over the other contestants.
One of the show’s stars who defended Laura was Poh, admitting she was “baffled” by the hate train in an interview with Refinery29.
“I think people really struggle with watching highly confident females state what they want unapologetically. And Laura has always been that, right from the beginning,” Poh said at the time.
Reflecting on last year’s reaction to Laura’s win, Poh says she is frustrated that fans don’t “understand how difficult the job is”.
“I think they see us with our pretty outfits, and we’re all kind of horsing around and having a great time, and everyone thinks it’s just this really glam job, but — and it is, in many ways. But the decision-making part is so thorough and so difficult,” Poh told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“The reason why it’s difficult is we have to get rid of people with a huge amount of potential all the time, because we’re only judging the dish, and that’s what audience members can’t seem to understand.
“We have to have some thread of consistency with which we judge every challenge. And the only thing we can do right for this format is to judge the dish that day, not the person, not their potential, not their past cooks, and the audience can’t seem to grasp that.”
Another criticism Laura faced — as a winner of MasterChef Australia: Back To Win — was that some viewers believed she got away with cooking pasta all the time, which is a complaint Poh is “bitter” about.
“I think it’s [that] we really try and design the show so that we can get good food out of them, but then also allow them to find their food language and their style,” the Aussie culinary icon continued.
“I bring this up all the time because I’m a little bit bitter about it, to be honest.”
2024’s Savindri ‘Sav’ Perera was also hit with the same criticism, with online trolls claiming she only served up Sri Lankan cuisine throughout the competition.
In response to the hate, Sav shared an Instagram Story, calling out folks for critiquing the way her food looks and that she’s “made the right move in representing my Sri Lankan heritage”.
“The more we talk about our cuisine with pride, with unapologetic fondness, the more we get to shine a light on its value,” she wrote.
“I may not have grown up seeing a brown woman cook the dishes my mother cooked for me on TV and be praised for it. But today, I got to give that gift to a little girl watching me somewhere.”
MasterChef Australia 2026 will be returning to its OG roots with 40 home cooks vying for a white apron. Hopefully, this time around, folks are a lot kinder to our contestants and judges. But, it looks like folks have A LOT to say after it was revealed that the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, will be appearing on the show as a guest judge.
The post MasterChef Australia’s Poh Ling Yeow Slams Haters Ahead Of The 2026 Season: ‘Bitter About It’ appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
