MasterChef’s John Torode and Gregg Wallace dismiss reports of a fake friendship
John says he only has a handful of good friends and he counts Gregg as one of them
They’ll have their game faces on when it comes to the serious business of announcing this year’s MasterChef winner, but judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace admit some of their most memorable moments are the bits that are too filthy to be shown on family television.
“My favourite thing is the innuendos that you don’t even think about until someone puts them in a montage of innuendos,” says Gregg.
“I think my favourite is: ‘It’s taken 20 minutes but Jackie has finally got her gnocchi out.’ There is so much double entendre with food that never makes it into the show – nuts, melons, ‘greasing it’... Things like that can stop us filming for five or six minutes.”
“There was one: ‘A main of mashed potato with a piece of roast pork in cider,’” chips in John. “‘Pork in cider’ is very childish but there is this joy that comes with people cooking good food.
It makes you happy, and if you’re happy you joke around and have a bit of fun.”
As with every series of MasterChef, there have been some bizarre dishes that have tested both judges’ patience – chocolate lasagne or pineapple cannelloni, anyone? – but it’s the jargon rather than the dishes that is likely to send Gregg, in particular, into a spin.
“I get more and more frustrated with all the bull**** that people come out with,” says Gregg, 52. “The one that really gets me is when I say to a contestant: ‘You’ve undercooked it.’
And they say: ‘Yes, but I didn’t want to overcook it.’ No, I didn’t want you to overcook it either, but that’s not a f***ing excuse for undercooking it. Are they the only choices?!
“The other thing is people’s terminology they’re using – ‘confit’, ‘fry it off’... Shut up. Just cook.
"It might impress your mates in the pub but not me. Another expression that comes up a lot is: ‘I like to cook with simple ingredients.’
"Do you now? Can you give me an example of a complicated ingredient? It’s all these stupid words that come into home cooks’ parlance.”
John chuckles as his pal and colleague begins to work up a good head of steam.
“If anyone says anything like that on the show now I just step back and watch him go,” grins John. “I’m a lot more patient with contestants now. I used to try to save them but that’s not my job. Now I tell them to go for it and enjoy it.”
This year’s finalists – Giovanna, Steve, Alison, Saliha and Lorna – have done just that, excelling at the various tests that have been thrown at them. In fact, if John has beef with anyone, it’s more likely to be with the restaurant critics than the contestants or previous years’ finalists (who have returned to judge).
“There was a great example this year where the former finalists said one dish was ghastly and the restaurant critics thought it was brilliant because they’d never seen anything like it before,” says John, 51.
“I don’t give a damn whether you’ve never seen it before, it wasn’t very good. I’ve never licked a toilet, but I know that’s not great either.”
During our exclusive shoot with John and Gregg, their rapport is obvious; there’s plenty of banter, they interrupt each other and look like two pals having a great time. So what of those recent headlines insisting they aren’t friends?
“I think you can count your friends on one hand – if you are in a hitch and need help, you pull out your phone and think: ‘I really need a hand right now’ and Gregg is one of those people I can call,” says John.
“It’s important to have that. We don’t hang out with each other all the time but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a great, solid friendship.
"We both have busy lives and we work with each other for seven months of the year, which is a long time to be right next to each other.
"I can see the hairs in his ears. I can smell his breath. You can’t have that sort of on-screen relationship without having a proper, true relationship.
"We meet up with each other and have a meal probably once a year and it always ends up being a little bit messy. We have a very, very good relationship and get on really well – we’ve worked together for almost 13 years and have known each other for nearly 25.
“My Instagram selfie [inset] sums up our friendship – we enjoy each other’s company. It’s true that we have our own opinions on MasterChef and we’ve been divided on certain issues. We haven’t morphed
into each other, I think that’s the secret to a great relationship.”
So will there ever be a time that they dine at each other’s houses?
“Maybe when we’re retired and settled down,” says John.
“But every so often I will bring some food into the studio for Gregg – I did it with polenta because he said he didn’t like it, but then he tried it and got it.
"There are very few partnerships on TV that have lasted the way ours has. I don’t know the secret to that, but our respect for each other is great.”
Indeed, Gregg holds John’s ability as a chef in high regard, saying that contestants ignore his co-host’s advice at their peril.
“If John asks a contestant if they really want to do something, he’s not inviting an open debate, he’s telling them they’re going to mess it up,” says Gregg. “Don’t give John loads of reasons why it’s okay, he’s trying to help you.”
Thanks to the huge success of the MasterChef brand (it’s been sold to 25 countries), it’s rare that either judge can hop on a plane or train without hearing a few culinary comments.
“Aeroplanes are the worst,” says John. “Usually the air stewards will apologise for the food when you get on and then someone in a seat near you when your food arrives will go: [whispers] ‘Is that up to standard?’”
So, can you get a decent meal on a plane?
“I go for a bowl of noodles on an aeroplane,” says John. “Then I put chilli or Tabasco on it.”
“I like the fried breakfast,” says Gregg. “It’s kind of all of one texture with essences of pork and tomato.
"What I take exception to is big-style catering – sports events, aeroplanes, trains – when, to posh it up, they try to do something that can’t be done.
"You can’t do steak with a fondant potato properly on a plane. So why don’t you just give everybody chilli con carne? Rabbit stew? Shepherd’s pie? They don’t because it won’t sound posh enough.”
“It’s the same with hotels. I don’t give a f*** where your chicken came from. I don’t care that you know the farmer. It’s simply not possible for every rubbish hotel in the country to be sourcing local produce and be passionate about it.”
“Do you know how many avocados are grown in Britain?” asks John. “None. It’s not hot enough here. That avocado has come from Columbia or wherever, however much you go on about your locally sourced eggs and sourdough toast.”
This is the 13th series of MasterChef that John and Gregg have fronted, with Celebrity MasterChef to follow. Has there ever been a time when they’ve felt their passion for food and cooking waning at all?
“No,” says John, emphatically.
“There is sometimes disappointment and frustration on the show. This year there was a girl who had the most beautiful langoustines but the rest of her dish was abominable. That’s what I find frustrating – when we have beautiful products then someone does something weird to it.”
“It’s very difficult to lose a passion for food,” agrees Gregg. “If you show me someone who’s not a food lover, I’ll show you a corpse.”
One thing that worries John is how some people have changed their eating habits.
“I know more people now that treat food as sustenance rather than a joy,” says John, who lives with EastEnders star Lisa Faulkner in London.
“It’d be a shame if London restaurants turned into the Manhattan lunchtime scene – power lunches of salad with no dressing and an egg-white omelette for breakfast. Whoever invented the egg-white omelette should be taken on a boat and left at sea. It’s joyless.”
“I do split my food into this much protein, this many carbs and this much fat now,” concedes Gregg.
“But I’m not sure that detracts from the joy of it. To eat indulgent food, you need to have put some time in the gym first, though. Then you’ve earned the right to dive headfirst into an enormous chocolate cake!”
IT’S THE FINAL WEEK! MasterChef: The Finals Monday 9pm,Wednesday 8pm, Thursday 8pm & Friday 8.30pm BBC1