Gregg Wallace stepped down from MasterChef this week amid the ongoing controversy around allegations of alleged inappropriate behaviour on the BBC show

Gregg Wallace has presented MasterChef since 2005, but he wasn’t the BBC’s only choice for the role.

Before the former greengrocer, 60, who has stepped down from the show amid the ongoing controversy around allegations of inappropriate behaviour, became a household name on MasterChef, presenter Giles Coren was also up for the job.

Giles, who has presented BBC’s Amazing Hotels with MasterChef star, Monica Galetti, was called into do a screen test for the series back in 2004 alongside John Torode, who had already got the gig.

Admitting he didn’t really want to present that “c**p old show from the nineties” believing “it will never work”, Giles went along to audition anyway. However, after claiming he had zero chemistry with John, who he claimed “would stare blankly” while Giles delivered “pristine culinary witticism like something out of Oscar Wilde”, he was called a taxi home.

Giles Coren was up for Gregg Wallace’s role on MasterChef ( 
Image:
PA Archive)

But then he saw Gregg on his way out, telling The Times: “When I was done, they called me a cab and as I sat waiting, a bald bloke with a very loud voice went through into the “studio”, shouting and laughing as he went. “Who’s that?” I asked. “That’s your competition,” they said. “He’s a greengrocer. Different sort of vibe.”

Giles continued: “The rest, of course, is … well, 20 years of melodramatically raised voices, fake jeopardy, irrelevant cooking and now poor old decent, baffled, wildly out-of-context Gregg hung out to dry by the BBC for being nothing more nor less than exactly what they were looking for. They didn’t want Oscar Wilde for John Torode’s foil in 2004, they wanted a greengrocer. And they got a greengrocer.”

MasterChef fans have called for the show to be taken off air amid the recent controversy surrounding Gregg. The dad-of-three has been accused of making “inappropriate sexual jokes” amongst other behavioural complaints. However, the presenter’s lawyer says: “It is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature”.

On Monday, the Peckham native apologised for his remarks suggesting complaints about his conduct came from “a handful of middle-class women of a certain age”. Taking to Instagram, he said: “I want to apologise for any offence that I caused with my post yesterday and any upset I may have caused to a lot of people.

“I wasn’t in a good headspace when I posted it, I’ve been under a huge amount of stress, a lot of emotion, I felt very alone, under siege yesterday when I posted it. It’s obvious to me I need to take some time out, now while this investigation is under way. I hope you understand and I do hope you will accept this apology.”