I told Gregg Wallace exactly what I thought of him — and one thing struck me

I told Gregg Wallace exactly what I thought about him (Image: PA)

Gregg Wallace was a sleazy, arrogant, big-mouthed, oik long before he hit the Big Time on MasterChef. I met him a few times in the early years and even then his ego and his vanity were towering. I remember him once asking me if I thought women were only after him because he was famous.

I told him it was absolutely the only reason they were after him because there was nothing else that could have attracted them.

It took him a while to register the insult because he’s not very bright. But even back then I knew that fame in the hands of a man like Wallace was a dangerous commodity. Because not only did it feed his gargantuan ego, people like him invariably end up abusing it. And the slew of complaints about Wallace over the years would seem to bear that out.

Now he’s been suspended from MasterChef while he’s investigated over claims between 2005-2022 of sexual misconduct, inappropriate language and behaviour, sexualised comments and sleazy jokes.

It’s always amazed me how the former barrow boy from Peckham ever managed to land MasterChef. Unlike the hugely likeable and talented Jon Torode, Wallace isn’t a chef and so is unqualified to judge other people’s culinary skills. But for some reason the BBC and Banjay, the production company that makes the show, were determined to make him a star.

I don’t know how this will turn out but Wallace was, and by all-accounts still is, a dinosaur who sees women as a commodity to make HIM look good. He once said he only dated women who made him feel like he was “riding a Jag with the roof down” when he walked into restaurants. And that definitely makes him a prat.

What’s happening to him now was always going to happen only his ego and arrogance didn’t allow him to see it.