Poh Ling Yeow burst onto screens in the first series of MasterChef Australia in 2009, her energy and daring quickly making her an audience favourite. Her popularity rested on her resilience and ability to bounce back from disaster. And bouncing back is something she’s done all her life, with her rise to fame anything but conventional. By the time Poh auditioned for MasterChef at the age of 35, she was a flourishing artist who had left her family’s Mormon religion and survived a painful divorce. She says her “wild journey” has taught her much about seeing adversity as an opportunity and that she’s “good friends” with uncertainty.