Gregg Wallace

Gregg Wallace
Wallace judging at "MasterChef Live" in 2010
Born Gregg Allan Wallace
(1964-10-17) 17 October 1964
Peckham, South East London, England
Nationality British
Occupation Broadcaster, writer, entrepreneur
Years active 2002–present
Employer BBC
Home town Whitstable, Kent, England
Television
Spouse(s)
  • Christine
    (m. 1991; div. 1991)
  • Denise
    (m. 1999; div. 2004)
  • Heidi
    (m. 2011; div. 2012)
  • Anne Marie (m. 2016)
Children 2

Gregg Allan Wallace (born 17 October 1964)[1] is an English television presenter known for co-presenting MasterChef, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals on BBC One and BBC Two. He is also a writer, media personality and former baker, costermonger and farmer. He has jokingly referred to himself as "just the fat, bald bloke on MasterChef who likes pudding".[2]

Career

Wallace (right) with John Torode at MasterChef Live in 2009

Wallace was born in Elephant and Castle, London.[3] He began his career selling vegetables at a stand in Covent Garden. In 1989, he started George Allan’s Greengrocers, a company that built up to an eventual turnover of £7.5 million.[4] Based on his business success, Wallace was invited to co-present Veg Talk on BBC Radio 4 with Charlie Hicks for seven years.

In 2010, Wallace opened the restaurant Wallace & Co in Putney where he served as one of the directors. In 2012, he opened Gregg's Bar & Grill in a joint venture with the Bermondsey Square Hotel in Bermondsey Square.

In August 2013, it was reported that one of Wallace's companies, West Veg Limited, had folded, owing more than £500,000.[5] In 2014, both of his restaurants folded, with Wallace & Co owing suppliers £150,000.[6]

Presenting

Wallace was the original presenter of Saturday Kitchen from 2002 until being replaced by Antony Worrall Thompson in 2003.[7] Wallace also presented Veg Out for the Discovery Channel, and Follow That Tomato for The Food Channel, resulting in a Royal Television Society award for Best Lifestyle Programme in 2003. Since 2005, he has been co-presenter and judge of BBC cooking show MasterChef with John Torode.

In 2008 and 2009, Wallace presented two editions of The Money Programme on the effect that the current financial crisis is having on the public's attitudes towards food.[8][9]

In August 2013, Wallace presented Supermarket Secrets, a BBC One programme about supermarket food sourcing and distribution, and in September 2013, he co-presented Harvest 2013, a three-part documentary following the progress of Britain's vegetable, cereal and fruit harvests.

Since 2013, Wallace has co-presented Eat Well for Less?, a factual BBC series alongside Chris Bavin and since 2015, he has co-presented Inside the Factory alongside Cherry Healey and Ruth Goodman for BBC Two.

In 2016, Wallace was the presenter of a revived series of the BBC historical game show Time Commanders, appearing alongside historians Mike Loades and Dr. Lynette Nusbacher.

Guest appearances

In 2007, Wallace appeared in the BBC singing contest Just the Two of Us where he partnered Carol Decker and were the first to be eliminated.

In 2010, Wallace appeared as one of the historical experts in the BBC One series Turn Back Time: The High Street with Tom Herbert and Juliet Gardiner.

On 27 January 2012, he appeared in an episode of Room 101 on BBC One.

In August 2012, Wallace was the subject of an edition of BBC 's Who Do You Think You Are?[10]

In 2014, Wallace appeared as a guest panellist on the BBC Two programme An Extra Slice.[11]

Strictly Come Dancing

In September 2014 Wallace was a contestant on the twelfth series of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with professional Aliona Vilani. In the first week Wallace danced a Cha-cha-cha to Katy Perry's "Hot n Cold". During the judges' comments, Wallace joked about the lack of success shown by Craig Revel Horwood in a previous series of Celebrity Masterchef. He left the show in the second week, after the first public vote, when the Waltz danced by Jennifer Gibney and Tristan MacManus was preferred by the judges to Vilani and Wallace's Charleston.[12]

Other work

Wallace regularly writes for Good Food and Olive magazine. Gregg was the main voice in the 2013 YouTube hit "Buttery Biscuit Base", in which his voice was taken from a number of episodes of MasterChef and used to create a song.

Personal life

Wallace has been married four times and divorced three times. He has two teenage children from his second marriage. Wallace married second wife Denise, a former pastry chef, in 1999. The couple separated in 2004 and Wallace won full custody of their children. Wallace met his third wife Heidi in 2009 and the couple married in 2010. They separated after 15 months of marriage, and later divorced.

Wallace met Anne-Marie Sterpini, who is 21 years his junior, on Twitter in 2013 and they married in August 2016. Masterchef co-host John Torode served as best man at Wallace and Sterpini's wedding at Hever Castle, Kent.[13]

Controversy

In March 2018, Wallace refused to judge Zaleha Kadir Olpin's dish in Masterchef UK, claiming that the stewed "chicken rendang" dish was not "crispy enough and could not be eaten".[14] This remark caused a significant media and public backlash in some prominent members of the ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei, as the dish is a stewed, soft and tender dish, and not intended to be "crispy".[15]

References

  1. ↑ "The Independent – 5 minute interview". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008.
  2. ↑ Manenti, Kyla (21 January 2011). "Gregg Wallace: the bald, fat bloke on Masterchef". iVillage. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  4. ↑ "Gregg Wallace – Personally Speaking Bureau". Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  5. ↑ Huffington Post Archived 30 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ Financial Mail on Sunday Archived 5 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ BBC – Food – TV and radio Archived 14 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ Lueck, Marianne (20 November 2008). "Pinch helps discount supermarkets". BBC News. Archived from the original on 25 January 2009.
  9. ↑ Farnham, Jacqui (29 June 2009). "Recession bites into eating habits". BBC News. Archived from the original on 9 March 2012.
  10. ↑ "Gregg Wallace". BBC. 22 August 2012. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  11. ↑ "The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice on BBC2 tonight with Jo Brand, Gregg Wallace, Paul Rankin & Roisin Conaty". Scunthorpe Telegraph. Archived from the original on 4 September 2014.
  12. ↑ Dowell, Ben (5 October 2014). "ctly Come Dancing 2014: Gregg Wallace is first celebrity to leave the show". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  13. ↑ Nolan, C (8 August 2016) Anne-Marie and Greg's wedding Archived 20 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  14. ↑ Malaysians roast MasterChef over chicken rendang elimination, BBC News, retrieved 11 Jun 2018.
  15. ↑ Four Nations Unite Against Masterchef UK Judge over Rendangate, The Star Online, 3rd April 2018.
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