Gregg Wallace’s MasterChef co-star John Torode was ‘never friends with him’ and shows were fraught with tension
GREGG Wallace and MasterChef co-star John Torode have never been friends despite their 19 year on-screen bromance.
The longtime colleagues are synonymous with the BBC cooking show and have proved to be one of TV’s most enduring double acts as they rate all manner of dishes – good and bad.
But behind the scenes, the pair are far from chummy.
Torode once bluntly told the Mirror: “It’s funny, we’ve never been friends.
“We’ve not been to each other’s houses… If we go away to somewhere like South Africa, we do things separately…
“If we do go out for a drink, I’ll invariably be at one end of a big old table and he’ll be at the other.”
In another interview with the Radio Times he hammered home the fact “we live separate lives”.
He even said that there’s a “little frisson” between them.
The pair were brought together in 2005 when MasterChef was revived following a four year break.
Lloyd Grossman had hosted the show since its inception in 1990 but he walked away in 2000 and was replaced by chef Gary Rhodes in 2021, however, fans didn’t connect with the new format.
Gregg was more emotive about his TV partner during an appearance on ITV‘s Lorraine.
He said: “I film with John six or seven months of the year, so we are very close to each other physically, and emotionally we are very close to each other.
“What’s great about having a partnership is that if one of you is a bit off, a bit down, the other one naturally steps up, so I rely on John a lot.”
Gregg was forced to quit his MasterChef job yesterday amid a BBC misconduct probe.
TV chef Gregg, 60, allegedly made sexual remarks to 13 colleagues including Beeb presenter Kirsty Wark.
The Sun revealed how he previously came under fire after “inappropriate sexual comments” were reportedly made to a female staffer on Impossible Celebrities.
Since then, 13 people who worked with Gregg across a range of shows over a 17-year period have now accused him of making sexual comments, the BBC confirmed.