Gregg Wallace
| Gregg Wallace | |
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 Gregg Wallace judging at Masterchef Live in 2010 |
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| Born | Gregg Allan Wallace 17 October 1964 Elephant & Castle, South London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Broadcaster, writer, entrepreneur |
| Years active | since 2002 |
| Employer | BBC |
| Known for | MasterChef |
| Home town | Whitstable, Kent, England (Family origin) |
| Spouse(s) | Christine (divorced) Denise (divorced) Heidi Brown (m. 2011)[1][2] |
Gregg Allan Wallace (born 17 October 1964[3]) is an English writer, media personality and former greengrocer, costermonger and farmer. He is probably best known for co-presenting MasterChef, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals on BBC Two and BBC One along with John Torode, where he is referred to as an "ingredients expert". He has referred to himself jokingly as just: "the fat, bald bloke on Masterchef who likes pudding".[4]
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Early life [edit]
Wallace was born in Peckham. At aged 14, his parents divorced, and he discovered that his mother's long term lover was his real father.[5]
Career [edit]
Wallace began his career selling vegetables at a stand in Covent Garden. He started George Allan’s Greengrocers in 1989, a company that built up to an eventual turnover of £7.5 million. He currently owns a restaurant in Bermondsey.[5]
Due to his business success he was invited to co-present Veg Talk on BBC Radio 4 with Charlie Hicks for seven years. He was the original presenter of Saturday Kitchen from 2002 until he was replaced by Antony Worrall Thompson in 2003.[6] 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. In 2007, he appeared in the BBC reality TV singing contest Just the Two of Us where he partnered Carol Decker; they were the first to be eliminated. In 2008 and 2009 he presented two editions of The Money Programme on the effect that the current financial crisis is having on the public's attitudes towards food.[7][8] In 2010, he appeared as one of the historical experts in the BBC One historical recreation series Turn Back Time: The High Street alongside Tom Herbert and Juliet Gardiner. Wallace regularly writes for Good Food and Olive magazine.
Personal life [edit]
Wallace has been married three times. He has two teenage children from his second marriage, Tom and Libby.[9]
He married second wife Denise, a former pastry chef, in 1999 and they had their two children together. But they split in 2004 after she discovered he had been cheating on her. She had a breakdown afterwards, spent three months in hospital and Wallace got full custody of the children. Wallace met his third wife Heidi, a teacher from Cumbria who is 17 years his junior, in 2009 after she asked him a question about celery and pollock on Twitter. Giving up her job as a biology teacher at Ullswater Community College in Penrith, the couple married in 2010. They are currently separated, with Wallace living in the flat above his restaurant in London, while his wife lives with his two children and her two dogs at the family home in Whitstable, Kent.[5][10]
In August 2012 Wallace was the subject of an edition of the BBC TV genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?[11]
Following in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather's family, Wallace raises a small herd of 37 rescued bardoka sheep and goats in a smallholding near the family home in Kent, which he feeds on a specially devised organic diet. He has a Level 2 rugby union coaching certificate, and used to play for London Welsh.[12]
In March 2013, the Independent on Sunday reported that in 2007 Gregg Wallace had received a police caution for assaulting a man in a row over a taxi in London. [13]
References [edit]
- ^ Cox, Emma (2011-01-24). "Gregg Wallace has secretly married a teacher 17 years his junior | The Sun |News". The Sun. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
- ^ Davies, Barbara (2009-06-22). "Is Masterchef star Greg Wallace's latest romance a recipe for disaster? | Daily Mail |Femail". Daily Mail. Retrieved 2011-04-27.
- ^ The Independent - 5 minute interview
- ^ Manenti, Kyla (21 January 2011). "Gregg Wallace: the bald, fat bloke on Masterchef". iVillage.
- ^ a b c Rebecca Hardy (13 April 2012). "Marriage doesn’t get tougher than this! MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace and his wife of 15 months reveal why she's had to leave him". Daily Mail. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
- ^ BBC - Food - TV and radio
- ^ Lueck, Marianne (20 November 2008). "Pinch helps discount supermarkets". BBC News.
- ^ Farnham, Jacqui (29 June 2009). "Recession bites into eating habits". BBC News.
- ^ "Gregg Wallace". United Agents. 2010-08-02. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
- ^ "It doesn't get any tougher than this": MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace splits up with his third wife after just 14 months". Daily Mirror. 18 March 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
- ^ "Gregg Wallace". BBC. 22 August 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
- ^ "Whitstable Pearl: Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace". This Is Kent. 18 March 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
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External links [edit]
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