KUALA LUMPUR – Gregg Wallace, the Masterchef UK judge who helped eliminate Malaysian born contestant Zaleha Kadir Olpin because her chicken rendang was “not crispy enough” has been booted from the show following a slew of allegations of inappropriate behaviour and racism.
MasterChef‘s production company, Banijay UK, has launched an investigation against the allegations and taken Wallace of the programme.
The allegations which are over the course of 17 years include groping three women and making lewd remarks at female contestants including “me so horny” to a contestant of Oriental descent and “I’ll munch the living daylights out of your little tart” to another who was presenting an egg tart.
Wallace, 60, has denied the allegations.
Even rock star Rod Stewart went after Wallace for humiliating the ‘First Cut is the Deepest’ singer’s wife Penny Lancaster on Celebrity MasterChef in 2021.
“So Greg Wallace gets fired from MasterChef. Good Riddance Wallace… You humiliated my wife when she was on the show, but you had that part cut out didn’t you?” Stewart wrote on Instagram.
“You’re a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully. Karma got ya.”
In 2023, he left the BBC show Inside the Factory after allegations of inappropriate comments to staff.
Saying it does not tolerate behavior below its standards, BBC has launched an investigation.
Apart from these allegations, Wallace has also been accused of lewd behaviour like taking off his shirt in front of female staff and even putting a sock on his private part.
In the 2018 MasterChef UK segment, Bristol based Zaleha presented chicken rendang with nasi lemak.
Wallace in his critique said: “I like the rendang flavour, there’s a coconut sweetness. However, the chicken skin isn’t crispy. It can’t be eaten and all the sauce is
on the skin so I can’t eat it.”
His comments drew a barrage of criticisms from Malaysians including “this is rendang not KFC”; and “whitesplaining”.
Even arch rivals Datuk Seri Najib Razak who was Prime Minister then and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad weighed in.
Najib, posting a photo of chicken rendang on Twitter asked: “anyone has ever eaten a crispy chicken curry?”
Dr Mahathir said: “Maybe you are confusing rendang chicken with KFC.” – November 30, 2024