MasterChef presenters Gregg Wallace and John Torode had celebrated the BBC show’s 20th anniversary before it recently hit the headlines.
In November it was announced that former greengrocer Wallace, 60, would step away from co-hosting the cooking show, amid an external review by show producers Banijay UK which would investigate complaints about historical allegations of misconduct.
The BBC has now also pulled two MasterChef Christmas specials from its festive schedule.
The programme, which tests amateur chefs on their culinary skills, was originally called MasterChef Goes Large when the men began presenting it in 2005.
Torode, 59, who was born in Sydney, Australia in 1965, was a resident chef on This Morning, appearing alongside Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, before he achieved widespread fame with Wallace on the revamped version of the show.
Wallace, who was born in Peckham, south London, worked in the Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market before finding a successful broadcasting career.
The men met in the 1990s when Wallace, greengrocer to London’s best restaurants for more than 20 years, began supplying one of Torode’s establishments.
Wallace told the PA news agency in 2007: “The first time we ever went for a drink together was when we started MasterChef.”
“John would never fraternise with suppliers,” he added.
The men also presented spin-off show Celebrity MasterChef and co-hosted an episode of the satirical BBC quiz Have I Got News For You in 2011.
Also in 2011, a viral mashup in which clips of Wallace and Torode were spliced together to create a two-minute auto-tuned song about cheesecake raked in more than 11 million views on YouTube, and subsequently peaked at number 37 in the UK singles chart.
Across the years there have been rumours that the men did not get along off-screen, although Wallace previously said he was “very fond” of Torode.
Speaking about a dinner he had with Torode, Wallace told PA in 2012: “We drank some very good red wine and we finished with a couple of brandies. We talked about love, life, weight loss, hair loss – I’m very fond of John.”
In 2022 Torode and Wallace were made MBEs in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, for their services to food and charity. Wallace described it as being “akin to a fairytale story”.
Earlier in the year the men attended the MasterChef 20th anniversary dinner, which Wallace said was “one of the most emotional evenings” of his life.
The dinner took place at Fishmongers Hall, London, during the cooking competition’s semi-finals week, and welcomed more then 70 guests who had been connected with the show over the last two decades.
Torode has yet to comment on the festive shows being pulled from the BBC schedules or about the allegations his co-presenter faces.
