Melissa Leong puts on a very quirky display in a bright pink satin dress with beaded rainbow cuffs as she attends Crown Oaks Day in Melbourne

Melissa Leong showed off her very quirky sense of style as she stepped out at Crown Oaks Day on Thursday during the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

The former MasterChef judge, 42, put on an edgy display in a bright pink satin gown with colourful rainbow beaded cuffs as she posed inside the Lexus marquee.

She added a few extra inches to her frame with a pair of heeled black sandals and toted her essentials in a quilted Gucci clutch bag.

Melissa tucked her brunette locks beneath a chic fuchsia polka dot headscarf and added to her stunning features with a dramatic slick of eyeliner.

The Dessert Masters star put her own unique twist on the Ladies' Day theme, which sees racegoers decked out in pastel colours and white tones.

Melissa is known for her very bold fashion statements and has already stepped out in an array of notably head-turning ensembles at the races over the past week.

She joined a whole host of celebrities inside the exclusive 'Birdcage', which sees invited guests indulge in luxury food and drinks at a range of branded marquees.

Also in attendance on Crown Oaks Day were the likes of Elizabeth Hurley and her son Damian, The Block judge Shaynna Blaze and Kate Waterhouse, among many others.

Melissa's latest outing comes after she was hit by rumours she could be lining up a return to MasterChef Australia .

Melissa left MasterChef Australia last year under a cloud of suspicion about an alleged feud with her former co-host Andy Allen, who still serves as a judge.

'Melissa told Ten that she'll go back to MasterChef Australia when Andy Allen goes,' a TV insider recently told Daily Mail Australia.

'I think the idea of returning to what the show once was for her seems a bit daunting and the only way Melissa would ever return is if the whole format was revamped.'

Melissa shocked fans when she shared news of her departure to Instagram one day before Network Ten's 2024 Upfronts.

'The changing of the guard is one I always planned to embrace, and I'm so glad to do that on my terms, today,' she penned in a statement last October.

Melissa's departure came after claims she had been axed following a string of publicised off-camera dramas.

She infamously had a blow up with the program's hair and make-up team along with a substitute freelance hairstylist in 2022.

'Andy has no beef with Leong,' the source told Daily Mail Australia. 'But he previously expressed his former colleague wasted a lot of time in hair and make-up.

'He felt her control over what was filmed was compromised by her perfectionism.'

Andy returned to the show this year alongside three new judges - media darling Poh Ling Yeow, Michelin-star chef Jean-Christophe Novelli and Melbourne food critic Sofia Levin.

Melissa has since gone on to take on a new role on MasterChef's spin-off show Dessert Masters co-judging alongside French-Swiss pastry chef Amaury Guichon.

Dessert Masters' first season saw a group of pastry chefs compete for a $100,000 prize and deliver a ratings salve for the network in the highly competitive reality TV market.

The premiere episode had 451,000 Australians tuning in across all the major cities and viewers heaped praise on the TV veteran's role on the show.

Word inside Ten is Dessert Masters will return in 2025, but the network has bought itself some time by delaying a formal announcement until after the second season has aired.