Blackberries dispute a thorny issue

MasterChef star John Torode has defended using the term brambles when referring to blackberries after causing controversy with viewers.

Torode and fellow judge Gregg Wallace surprised some fans of the BBC1 cooking show when they discussed “brambles” while looking at a contestant’s dish of roast partridge.

@deutschmikey wrote: “So we are not to call them blackberries any more people – remember, the fashionable call them brambles...brambles!”

@jeffsjensens wrote: “It’s blackberries not brambles.”

Torode told Good Morning Britain: “In Scotland they are actually called brambles.”

Good Morning Britain’s co-host Piers Morgan joked: “I won’t have you, an Australian, citing Scots, ordering me to call them brambles.”

Torode hit back, saying: “Nobody’s ordering you to do anything. The fact is they are called both things.”

Viewers backed Torode, with @michele saying: “I’m from Northumberland and they are definitely brambles.”

@logansteven wrote: “Brambles they are and Brambles they shall stay.”