Gregg Wallace says every barbecue he has been to was ‘rubbish’

Updated

Gregg Wallace has said every barbecue he has ever been to has been “rubbish”.

The MasterChef judge told the Radio Times that successfully cooking on a barbecue is “one of the most difficult techniques known to man”.

“Every barbecue I have ever been to was rubbish,” he told the magazine.

“I turn up and find the same lump of uncooked meat on a paper plate and I have to try to cut it with a plastic fork in one hand and a drink in the other.

Philips British Academy Television Awards – London
(Ian West/PA)

“Men who only ever go into a kitchen to throw beer cans away suddenly seek to perfect one of the most difficult techniques known to man.

“If you want to cook over a flame, please look at what Greek cooks, or Turkish cooks, or Argentinian cooks do, people who have been cooking like this for centuries and all year round, rather than just a few times a year.

“What you are cooking needs to be small, it needs to be marinated, and you need to be in control of it.

“Also, don’t cook one dish and never try it again. Do it over and over again and perfect it – it will taste much better that way.”

Wallace also said some of the changes made to BBC cookery programme MasterChef during the pandemic will become permanent.

(Radio Times/PA)
(Radio Times/PA)

“Each contestant now cooks at least two plates of food, so John and I get one plate each,” he said.

“There is no sharing of food now. That will stay.

“Also, we have started to have fewer people sitting at the chef’s table. That works much better.

“John and I don’t have to share a dressing room any more, either, which is a great pleasure.

“No longer do I have to have his sweaty cycling gear hanging on my door.”

Read the full interview in the Radio Times, available now.

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