Poem about food beginning to show model quality (9)

'show model quality' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.

'poem about food beginning' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'about' could be 'in' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'in' is present in the answer.
'food' could be 'egg' (egg is a kind of food) and 'egg' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'less' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'to' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?