Gregg Wallace has been embroiled in controversy this week as a podcast emerges on which the TV chef says he deserves a statue of himself in London.
The former MasterChef judge featured on series five of the podcast Grilled by The Staff Canteen in April last year.
Chatting to fellow TV star and owner of Myrtle Restaurant, Anna Haugh, Wallace claimed he could save the nation from obesity.
Wallace said: “Your grandchildren are going to drive past Trafalgar Square one day and there’s going to be a statue of Gregg Wallace in a toga holding a pineapple because he saved the nation.”
Anna invited Wallace, 60, onto the podcast where she speaks to industry professionals about their career and to put them under the ‘Grilled’ spotlight.
She opened the episode by introducing the TV chef as “a bit on an onion, there’s so much more to him than you might realise”.
He was speaking on his business that promotes healthy eating and lifestyles, revealing his journey to losing five stone. He claims journalists were constantly asking him how he did it to the point where TV shows he was supposed to be doing press for asked him to stop “hijacking interviews to speak on his weight loss.”
Wallace stepped down from hosting the BBC cooking show after nearly 20 years last Thursday, while an investigation into his alleged misconduct is carried out.
The TV chef is now facing at least 13 accusations of inappropriate sexual misconduct, including one from former Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark.
Despite his controversial exit, the BBC has continued to air the current series of MasterChef: The Professionals. However, the flagship channel has cancelled the festive specials which were set to drop later this year.
Speculation has also been mounting as to who will replace Wallace as the host and judge of the beloved cooking competition.
The dad-of-three has vehemently denied all allegations against him, with his lawyers insisting: “It is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.”
