Gregg Wallace

Career

Wallace was born in Elephant and Castle, London. He began his career selling vegetables at a stand in Covent Garden. In 1989, he started George Allan’s Greengrocers, a company that built up to an eventual turnover of £7.5 million. Based on his business success, Wallace was invited to co-present Veg Talk on BBC Radio 4 with Charlie Hicks for seven years.

In 2010, Wallace opened the restaurant Wallace & Co in Putney where he served as one of the directors. In 2012, he opened Gregg's Bar & Grill in a joint venture with the Bermondsey Square Hotel in Bermondsey Square.

In August 2013, it was reported that one of Wallace's companies, West Veg Limited, had folded, owing more than £500,000. In 2014, both of his restaurants folded, with Wallace & Co owing suppliers £150,000.

Presenting

Wallace was the original presenter of Saturday Kitchen from 2002 until being replaced by Antony Worrall Thompson in 2003. Wallace also presented Veg Out for the Discovery Channel, and Follow That Tomato for The Food Channel, resulting in a Royal Television Society award for Best Lifestyle Programme in 2003. Since 2005, he has been co-presenter and judge of BBC cooking show MasterChef with John Torode.

In 2008 and 2009, Wallace presented two editions of The Money Programme on the effect that the current financial crisis is having on the public's attitudes towards food.

In August 2013, Wallace presented Supermarket Secrets, a BBC One programme about supermarket food sourcing and distribution, and in September 2013, he co-presented Harvest 2013, a three-part documentary following the progress of Britain's vegetable, cereal and fruit harvests.

Since 2013, Wallace has co-presented Eat Well for Less?, a factual BBC series alongside Chris Bavin and since 2015, he has co-presented Inside the Factory alongside Cherry Healey and Ruth Goodman for BBC Two.

Guest appearances

In 2007, Wallace appeared in the BBC singing contest Just the Two of Us where he partnered Carol Decker and were the first to be eliminated.

In 2010, Wallace appeared as one of the historical experts in the BBC One series Turn Back Time: The High Street with Tom Herbert and Juliet Gardiner.

On 27 January 2012, he appeared in an episode of Room 101 on BBC One.

In August 2012, Wallace was the subject of an edition of BBC 's Who Do You Think You Are?.

In 2014, Wallace appeared as a guest panellist on the BBC Two programme An Extra Slice.

Strictly Come Dancing

In September 2014 Wallace was a contestant on the twelfth series of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with professional Aliona Vilani. In the first week Wallace danced a Cha-cha-cha to Katy Perry's "Hot n Cold". During the judges' comments, Wallace joked about the lack of success shown by Craig Revel Horwood in a previous series of Celebrity Masterchef. He left the show in the second week, after the first public vote, when the Waltz danced by Jennifer Gibney and Tristan MacManus was preferred by the judges to Vilani and Wallace's Charleston.

Other work

Wallace regularly writes for Good Food and Olive magazine. Gregg was the main voice in the 2013 YouTube hit "Buttery Biscuit Base", in which his voice was taken from a number of episodes of MasterChef and used to create a song.

Personal life

Wallace has been married four times and divorced three times. He has two teenage children from his second marriage. Wallace married second wife Denise, a former pastry chef, in 1999. The couple separated in 2004 and Wallace won full custody of their children. Wallace met his third wife Heidi in 2009 and the couple married in 2010. They separated after 15 months of marriage, and later divorced.

Wallace met Anne-Marie Sterpini, 21 years his junior on Twitter in 2013 and they married in August 2016. Masterchef co-host John Torode served as best man at Wallace and Sterpini's wedding at Hever Castle, Kent.