The night Masterchef star turned on me out of the blue
THE victim of Gregg Wallace’s drunken attack last night accused MasterChef judge of ‘turning on him out of the blue’.
Paul Bates, a magazine publisher, was set upon by Wallace after the presenter accused him of fondling his 27-year-old girlfriend’s bottom during a fivecourse dinner at a luxury hotel.
Wallace is said to have rained blows on the 55-year- old as they grappled on the floor in front of shocked guests at the £75-a-head event on Saturday evening.
Drinkers were forced to separate the men after Wallace launched himself at Mr Bates, grabbing him by the collar and apparently punching him in the face at least five times and leaving him with a cut head and split lip.
Mr Bates, a father of two whose company Raw Media publishes Cotswold Style magazine, said the fight happened while he was with his daughter Stephanie, 25, at the four-star Wood Norton Hotel near Evesham, Worcestershire.
‘We had dinner and Gregg was the guest of honour,’ he said. ‘ We adjourned to the bar and I was chatting with his girlfriend.
‘Out of the blue, he just turned on me and pushed me across the room and I fell on a table. But later Gregg gave me an apology and we had a couple of whiskies together. It was something or nothing.’
The event had been advertised as Dinner With Gregg Wallace, where he went from table to table chatting to guests and cracking jokes following a question-and-answer session.
About 80 diners attended the event, where they enjoyed a fivecourse meal with wine accompanying each course.
A witness told the Daily Mail the incident erupted shortly after mid-
‘Well respected in the Cotswolds’
night, saying: ‘ One minute Gregg was at the bar and the next minute he was rolling around on the floor fighting with this other man. Glasses went everywhere.’
Another witness claimed Wallace, 48, had earlier sworn at a guest who asked for his autograph.
‘Gregg was being aggressive even before the fight with the other guest,’ they said. ‘ One man came up to him shortly before the incident and said, “Would you mind if I asked for an autograph?” He just replied, “Would you mind if you could **** off?”.
‘People around him were shocked, they just didn’t expect that kind of behaviour at all.’
Other diners claimed that tensions had started after Wallace abruptly ended the question and answer session when several guests began heckling him.
Wallace, who was yesterday starting a three-day shoot in Herefordshire for upcoming BBC2 show Harvest, refused to comment when approached by the Mail.
But his spokesman contradicted Mr Bates’s version of events, claiming Wallace was provoked after inappropriate behaviour towards his girlfriend, Anne-Marie Sterpini. The spokesman said: ‘Gregg and Anne-Marie’s memory of the incident differs from that of Mr Bates. Perhaps he was unaware that his comments and actions made AnneMarie feel very uncomfortable.
‘However, as in previous statements, we have made clear that the situation was resolved on the night. Both parties would like to put the incident behind them and move on.’
Last night Mr Bates’s business partner Mark Cuzner described him as a ‘lovely man’.
‘Paul’s an inoffensive man, a family guy who has worked his way up from humble beginnings,’ he said.
‘ He is well respected in the Cotswolds.
‘It’s totally out of character for Paul to have done what is alleged. I just can’t see that happening at all.’ Mr Bates lives with his wife Jean- ette, 53, daughter, and son Christopher, 23, in a five-bedroom detached home in Gloucester.
Last month Mr Bates was photographed with Zara Phillips and her husband Mike Tindall at a charity dinner in Cheltenham staged by chef James Martin, who presents Saturday Kitchen.
Mr Bates’s magazine was media sponsor of the event.
Wallace grew up in Peckham, South London. As a youth he was fined for threatening behaviour after being caught up in a violent clash between police and Millwall football fans.
He has also admitted being arrested and sacked for stealing from the warehouse where he worked as a young man.