Everyone wants a takeaway, wine and chocolate, but you have to earn it
MASTERCHEF JUDGE GREGG WALLACE OFFERS UP SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT AS HE CHATS TO MARION McMULLEN ABOUT THE RECIPE FOR HIS FIRST TOUR
You’re surrounded by food on television. How do you avoid all that temptation?
(LAUGHS) I’m in the gym five or six days a week and I’ve made changes in my diet.
I’m snacking on fruit and not crisps. You can eat as much as you want of good things.
You can eat your body weight in mango, pineapple and strawberries. You can eat lemon sole as long as you don’t smother it in butter.
There’s no miracle cure. We all know what is good.
The problem is everyone is looking for this quick solution.
Everyone wants their takeaway and chocolate and bottle of wine, but you’ve got to earn it.
What is your gym routine?
I HAVE a trainer, Danny, who is a very clever young man and a qualified physio. I do a mix of weights with him to increase muscle.
I’m 54 this year so there’s a limit to how much muscle you can put on, but I do swimming and cycling.
I try to swim twice a week and I love dancing as well after taking part in Strictly Come Dancing. It’s good exercise.
Do MasterChef contestants get nervous meeting you and fellow judge John Torode?
I’M FORTUNATE that I love people and love chatting to people and John wants to do his best to help contestants.
But we realised quite early on – series two or three – that some of the contestants were nervous about us so we now talk to them all the time off camera and do our best to make them feel relaxed.
We joke and laugh and set them at ease.
Have your food tastes changed over the years?
WHEN I started working in food it was all more elaborate and fussy so you start exploring and climbing this mountain of fussiness, but you quickly come down the other side and start craving simple dishes.
My wife’s family is Italian and Italian food is my ideal.
Who is the better cook, you or your wife?
MY WIFE Anne is a fabulous cook. All her family cook, but they all say she is the best of all of them.
She does most of the cooking at home, but we actually like to cook together. She sends me out shopping to improve my Italian when we are in Italy.
I can ask for some things like the fish and at the butcher’s I know the meats, but I don’t always know the words for the cuts I want.
You’re about to embark on your first tour. What can audiences expect?
IT’S in two halves. The first half is all about television and then it’s food.
The television side will be all everyone wants to know about MasterChef. People always want to know the same things – ‘When is it back on?’ ‘Is the food cold when you eat it?’ ‘Are you and John Torode really mates?’ and ‘is it unfair to the MasterChef contestant who is on last because you are not hungry?’
I talk about MasterChef, Professional MasterChef, Eat Well For Less – all the shows.
(Laughs) People also ask every time ‘Why do you wear a hairnet on Inside The Factory?’
What else is planned?
THERE are games to see if audiences can shop any better then people who are on Eat Well For Less.
Couples will be on stage and will have pick out what’s organic and not organic, what’s frozen and what’s tinned. I’ll also be opening bottles of wine and having them taste £5, £20 and £70 bottles to see if they can tell the difference.
How did the live shows come about?
I’VE done live things for charity and they’ve always gone down really well. I really enjoy the interaction with people.
I had wondered if it would work as a theatre show and I mentioned it to my agent.
I had some notes and they put me in touch with a promoter and they looked at my notes and said ‘That Gregg is a show you’ve written yourself.’
They came up with a couple of tweaks and I tried out a few shows last year and really enjoyed it.
Do you get nervous beforehand?
I WAS nervous before the first one, really nervous, because I’d had this in mind for a long time.
My daughter has just got a first in contemporary theatre and she gave me a really good bit of advice: “Just own the space and it doesn’t matter if you get something wrong or you can’t remember what comes next, as long as you are honest with the audience and they can laugh with you.”
I’ve never played sport in front of a crowd of a people and I never will, but when you hear cheering and applause like that it is a fantastic feeling.
Do you ever get thrown by audience questions?
(LAUGHS) I was doing a cookery demonstration at Hampton Court and someone asked me about a food intolerance and what they should use instead.
I’m not a nutritionist and I’ve no interest in killing someone off. I had to say ‘I don’t know how to answer
that.
How do you unwind?
I’M normally working 11 months of the year. There’s MasterChef – amateur, celebrity and professional, Inside The Factory and Eat Well For Less. That’s my year, but I take the whole of August off and go to Italy.
I always try to take time out of my day to read and we’ve also got two French bulldogs so I take them out for long walks.
None of the TV career was planned. You can’t go to TV school. Everyone on TV is there by accident. I’ve been nearly 20 years doing this job and I love doing it. You know it’s just a job... it’s what you are.