Gregg Wallace came under fire this week for allegedly making ‘inappropriate’ jokes on his hit BBC show MasterChef.
Bosses at the corporation are said to have hauled Wallace, 59, into a meeting in 2018 following allegations of ‘inappropriate sexual comments’ and told him to ‘change his behaviour’, but innuendo-filled commentary has remained an integral part of the MasterChef brand for two decades.
Outlandish outbursts have littered the critique from Wallace and his co-judge John Tororde, 59, over the past 20 series, with many of the clips now being unearthed in light of the new allegations this week – which Gregg denies.
And Torode landed himself in hot water on Tuesday after making a quip to Cat Deeley on This Morning about his ‘little sausage’ while cooking toad in the hole.
Whilst the innuendos are now coming up for debate, Wallace and Torode’s outlandish brand have helped the BBC show set itself apart from the sea of cookery shows on TV.
One memorable quip occurred during a 2016 episode of MasterChef: The Professionals and saw Wallace tell one contestant: ‘It’s just missing that sauce that is going to bring the whole thing together. I’m desperate to dip that pork into something wet!
Torode meanwhile made his own quip in 2012 when he asked a female contestant if she considered herself to be ‘a conservative cook or an experimental cook’.
‘I’m experimental at home with my husband,’ replied the contestant, to which a laughing Torode told her: ‘I’m not asking what you do at home.’
Then, in 2015 whilst tasting a female contestant’s dessert, Wallace declared: ‘I want to take my shirt off and dive in!’
Wallace’s comments haven’t been limited to the main series. A 2011 episode of Celebrity MasterChef saw the judge tell actress Margi Clarke: ‘In here needs to be a bit wetter. It’s like a diamond ring in a carrier bag!’
Back in 2023, viewers were shocked by another Wallace innuendo as he sent contestant Diya Kotecha-Lodhia packing.
The judges were left ‘underwhelmed’ by her starter and said that her main dish ‘didn’t quite work’.
But it was Gregg’s accidental innuendo that left fans at home in stitches, when reflecting on the starter he simply said: ‘I found those balls really quite salty.’
Torode‘s wife Lisa Faulkner spoke out on the jokes this week, admitting that during her time on the show she would think, ‘I don’t want to hear this’, as Wallace delivered punchlines to crew members.
Faulkner, 52, appeared on the series in 2010 when she went on to win the Celebrity MasterChef trophy – and has now opened up about her time on the show.
She Cheltenham Literature Festival last weekend how she would overhear the former greengrocer’s jokes as she was chopping away, reported The Sun.
‘Gregg was telling – I’m probably not allowed to say this…Gregg just told rude joke after rude joke to the crew,’ Lisa told the audience.
‘You’re just sitting there and if you’re on the front bench just chopping away thinking, “I’ve got ten minutes left”, and he’s saying, “So this girl walked into a bar…”
‘And I’m going, “Please, I don’t want to hear this joke”.’
Her husband John who was on stage with her to promote their new book, told her: ‘It’s changed quite a lot really…’
But John was caught up in a joke furore of his own this week when plating up a dish of toad in the hole during a cooking segment of This Morning, leaving host Cat Deeley grimacing.
John joked: ‘I never thought I’d say to Cat Deeley, “Here’s a little sausage for you darling”.’
Cat, 47, tapped him on the back and replied: ‘Oh I like it, thank you,’ before she turned to make a face at the camera.
Viewers took to social media to point out the unfortunate timing of John’s comment in the light of the scandal affecting his co-presenter.
‘Why is John Torode’s co-star the bald one getting in trouble for sexual innuendos when he said today live on ITV with Cat Deeley,’ the social media user wrote.
‘Make sure he is sacked as well.. women shouldn’t put up with these disgusting sexual comments any longer!’
The allegations of inappropriate comments have only now emerged amid the BBC this week launching a probe into workplace culture as bosses aim to crack down on the ‘abuse of power‘.
The insider who made the claims against Wallace, which his team says are ‘inaccurate’, raised questions as to why he was allowed to continue presenting MasterChef.
They told the Sun: ‘He is said to have been boasting about his sex life with his partner at the time.
At one point, Wallace was also accused of taking his top off in front of the woman which felt inappropriate.
The team working on the show were said to have gone to BBC bosses to complain after being left ‘mortified’ by Wallace’s alleged behaviour.
Gregg has denied the claims he boasted about his sex life to a younger female BBC employee and took his top off in front of her while filming a game show – saying he would never ‘flirt with’ or ‘hit on’ another woman.
A spokesman for the BBC told The Sun: ‘Whilst we do not comment on individuals, if issues are raised they are dealt with swiftly and appropriately at the time.
‘We do not tolerate any form of inappropriate behaviour and have robust processes in place.’
It was previously reported by the Times back in May last year that he had allegedly offended female staff members at the Nestlé UK factory in York with comments about their weight during a ‘friendly’ conversation.
Wallace then denied that he left the BBC show Inside The Factory in March that year due to inappropriate comments made towards female staff.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain in August 2023, the called the claims ‘inaccurate’.
The newspaper had quoted a source as saying: ‘He was rude towards staff and continued to talk in a derogatory manner, especially to women.’
The comments were reportedly non-sexual but deemed ‘inappropriate’ and a complaint was lodged with Voltage TV, the production company responsible for developing the show.
When asked on GMB by Richard Madeley about his departure from the programme, Wallace responded by saying: ‘There was an argument inside the factory, the reporting isn’t accurate.
‘There was an issue and I thought this is the perfect time to come out.’
‘Offending people? No, no – if you look at the headlines, you can’t see a story that matches those headlines.’
Gregg also revealed that he also wanted to leave to help care for his son Sid, born in 2019, who is autistic.
Explaining his home situation, he said: ‘I’ve got a little boy called Sid who at the moment is non-verbal, he is still in nappies, he’s got learning difficulties. Mum needed help there.’
He revealed that the demanding nature of the filming around the different factories across the country meant that it made sense to give it up.
Wallace added: ‘It’s completely inaccurate, I didn’t challenge it. There was an issue, I don’t want to discuss the issue but it wasn’t what the papers said it was.
‘There was nothing offensive to anybody that’s just people guessing. It was a decent time to come out, I think.’
Wallace wed Anne-Marie Sterpini, 22 years younger than him, at Hever Castle in Kent in August 2016, having met three years earlier.
