Summary
MY BOYFRIEND won't watch MasterChef with me any more. He says it hurts his ears -- or rather, my screaming at the TV does. The problem is co-presenter Gregg Wallace, who annoys me beyond measure. And I'm not alone. 'Can anyone tell me what Gregg's role actually is?' asks a plaintive voice on social networking site Twitter. 'He's there for the hard of hearing,' I boast two Michelin stars.) Wallace, who got his break on Radio 4's Veg Talk series, is a greengrocer by trade and a very successful one at that. Unfortunately, although he's very knowledgeable about what's in season, it doesn't seem to equip him very well for his judging duties. If Michel says, for example, that a soup is beautifully smooth, but lacks seasoning, Gregg is guaranteed to respond that it's got a luvvvverly texture -- but, after some back forcefully, 'given all he does is repeat what Michel Roux Junior has said, but in a VERY LOUD VOICE.'
Don't get me wrong, I love MasterChef. Watching someone else effortlessly whipping up a gorgeous three-course meal is a joy. And there's nothing I like better than giving the contestants a soupcon of unhelpful advice ('that pastry's too thick, it'll never cook') as I tuck into my haute cuisine ready-meal supper on the sofa. Sadly, none of them can hear my ill-informed opinions. Wallace's, however, are supposedly integral to the show. Wallace has been introduced in previous years as an ingredients expert. This time round, I notice, he's been downgraded to merely MasterChef judge, which seems, as Gregg himself might say, to be stating the bleeding obvious. (Roux, by contrast, is described as a 'culinary legend', but then his London restaurant Le Gavroche does thought, suggest that it needs a bit of salt.See the full content of this document
Extract
Public Enemy ; Masterchef's Gregg Wallace
The one area where he...
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