Gregg Allan Wallace was born on 17 October 1964 in Peckham, South London.[1] At the age of eight, he was sexually assaulted by a babysitter's husband, but did not tell anybody at the time.[2][3] He left school at 15 and started work as a warehouseman at Covent Garden Fruit and Veg Market. He sold vegetables at a stand in Covent Garden, before becoming a salesman. He was later told that setting up a business might be a good idea.[4] In 1989, he started George Allan's Greengrocers, a company that grew to a turnover of £7.5 million.[5]
In 2010, Wallace opened the restaurant Wallace & Co in the London district of 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 August 2013, it was reported that one of Wallace's companies, West Veg Limited, had folded, owing more than £500,000.[6] In 2014, both of his restaurants folded, with Wallace & Co owing suppliers £150,000.[7]
Broadcasting career
Wallace (right) with John Torode at MasterChef Live in 2009
Wallace was invited to co-present Veg Talk on BBC Radio 4 with Charlie Hicks. The programme aired for seven years; Andy Kershaw described it as being "delivered with this fake, barrow-boy bonhomie."[8]
In 2008 and 2009, Wallace presented two editions of The Money Programme on the effect that the financial crisis was having on the public's attitudes towards food.[10][11] 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.
In December 2019, Wallace presented a Channel 5 documentary called Gregg Wallace's Magical Christmas Market, filmed in Vienna, Austria.[13][14][15][16] In April 2020, Channel 5 scheduled a follow-up series called Gregg Wallace's Fun Weekends, but it was pulled because it featured cities badly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.[17][18][19] The four-part travel series was finally transmitted in February 2021 as Big Weekends with Gregg Wallace (also known as Gregg Wallace: Big Weekends Away) with the first episode being about Barcelona.[20][21][22]
In February 2021, Wallace presented a six-part ITV series called South Africa with Gregg Wallace.[23] In the series, he visited sites such as Isandlwana, the Augrabies Falls, Durban and the Orange River.[24] In this month it was reported that Kimberley Walsh was likely to replace Wallace as presenter of Eat Well For Less, after Wallace left the show after eight years.[25]
In December 2021, Wallace presented two Channel 5 Christmas specials: Gregg Wallace's Grand Christmas Adventure and Gregg Wallace's Magical Christmas Market.[26][27]
Between 2005 and 2024, Wallace was co-presenter and judge of BBC cooking show MasterChef, with John Torode. In December 2024 Wallace was replaced by food critic Grace Dent.
In March 2018, Wallace declined to judge Zaleha Kadir Olpin's dish on MasterChef, stating that the stewed chicken rendang dish was "not crispy enough and could not be eaten".[29] This remark caused a media and public backlash in some prominent members of the ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei, who said that rendang is a "stewed, soft and tender dish: not intended to be crispy".[30]
Guest appearances
In 2007 Wallace appeared in the BBC singing contest Just the Two of Us where he partnered with professional singer Carol Decker. The duo were the first to be eliminated.[citation needed]
On 27 January 2012, Wallace appeared in an episode of Room 101 on BBC One. In August 2012, Wallace was the subject of an episode of the BBC genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are?[31]
In November 2024, it was reported that Wallace was to step away from MasterChef while allegations of historical misconduct were investigated.[36] This came after the BBC reported to Wallace's representatives that there were allegations of inappropriate sexual comments from 13 individuals. Wallace's lawyers said it is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.[37] Wallace was subsequently dropped by the charity Ambitious about Autism which had appointed him as an ambassador in honour of his autistic son.[38][39] In August 2021, television and radio presenter Melanie Sykes had been a competitor on the programme, but Sykes later said that a comment from Wallace had led her to end her career in the entertainment industry.[40]
Responding to the accusations against him, Wallace posted a video to Instagram saying there had been "13 complaints" from "over 4,000 contestants" he had worked with in 20 years on the BBC show MasterChef.[41] On 2 December 2024, Wallace apologised for suggesting that allegations against him came from "a handful of middle-class women of a certain age".[42] On 3 December, the BBC announced that two forthcoming MasterChef special episodes and three repeats of an old series of Inside the Factory, had been pulled from the Christmas schedule while the allegations against Wallace were still being investigated.[43][44] On 4 December 2024, allegations of sexual harassment were made by the ghostwriter of Wallace's autobiography, Life On A Plate.[45]
The former head of BBC News, Roger Mosey, stated that the allegations against Wallace were a "blow to the BBC" which has had a long-standing problem with misbehaviour by some of its presenters.[46]
Personal life
Wallace married his first wife, Christine, in 1991 but their marriage only lasted six weeks. He has two children with his second wife, former pastry chef Denise Lovell[47], whom he was married to between 1999 and 2004. Wallace later married biology teacher Heidi Brown, in 2010, his third wife who was 17 years his junior, after meeting her on Twitter. The relationship ended after 15 months.[48][49]
Wallace met Anne-Marie Sterpini, 21 years his junior, also on Twitter, in 2013 and they married in August 2016. Masterchef co-host John Torode served as best man at the wedding at Hever Castle, Kent. Sterpini gave birth to their first child in 2019. Wallace publicly expressed his fears of being an "old parent" but said that he was considering having more children.[50][51] Wallace's son was diagnosed with autism in 2022.[52] In February 2024, Wallace told the Telegraph that having another child "isn't something that I would have chosen at my age", but did so to please his wife.[53]
Great British Food Revival: The Revolution Continues: 16 Celebrated Chefs Create Mouth-watering Recipes with the UK's Finest Ingredients. Orion Publishing Group. 2011. ISBN9780297867678
Life on a Plate: The Autobiography. Orion Publishing Group. 2012. ISBN9781409139218
Gregg's Italian Family Cookbook. Octopus Books. 2019. ISBN9781784725914
References
^"Biography". Gregg Wallace. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
