Penny Lancaster has lifted the lid on her MasterChef experience (Image: BBC)

Penny Lancaster has lifted the lid on her Celebrity MasterChef experience with Gregg Wallace. In her new autobiography, the wife of Rod Stewart has unveiled what happened when she appeared on the BBC show with the former host in 2021. It comes after complaints were made against the television host last year regarding his behaviour. The MasterChef frontman faced accusations of making sexually inappropriate remarks, which Wallace strongly denies. He subsequently stepped down from his role on MasterChef in November, but a few months ago, he was officially sacked by the BBC.

During her time on the BBC show, a resurfaced clip emerged of Penny showing her embarrassment over her fried calamari and tartare sauce. As she prepared her dish, Penny confidently stated: “I’m doing surprisingly well compared to what I imagined how I’d be doing. I don’t want to slip up now.”

Gregg Wallace was sacked by the BBC earlier this year (Image: BBC)

However, things took a turn for the worse when it came to tasting her dish. Gregg Wallace informed her: “You used whole eggs instead of egg yolks.” Judge John Torode added: “What I’ve got in here is a raw egg/oil milkshake. Unfortunately, I can’t eat that.”

Penny has now made claims in her autobiography, Someone Like Me, about Greg’s behaviour. She details that he was “crass” towards fellow contestant Melanie Sykes and says she initially believed that host John Torode would give her a hard time.

She wrote: “Normally Wallace wandered around the studio with a stuck-on smile, but all I could see now was a thunderous stare. Then he marched over to my station with my tray and slammed it down. ‘I’m the judge and I make all the decisions’, he said menacingly, before heading back.”

Penny added that the encounter left her “shaking.” She also wrote about a moment when Gregg stole a flower from one of her dishes: “He stared at me, reached into his pocket, took out the orchid and dropped it on the floor in front of him. ‘There you go, there’s your flower,’ he snapped.

Rod Stewart lashed out at Gregg Wallace on Instagram before Christmas on social media (Image: Getty)
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“Thinking about it now, I wonder why I bent down and picked it up. It was such a demeaning position to be placed in, as if his behaviour was part of a massive power-play.”

Penny also said that when she left the studio, she was in tears and claimed that no one in the production team spoke to her about the incident.

What’s more, when the allegations against Gregg came to light, Penny’s husband, Sir Rod Stewart, scornfully branded Wallace as a “tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully.”

Posting on Instagram before Christmas, his fiery remark read: “So Greg Wallace gets fired from Masterchef. Good riddance Wallace…You humiliated my wife when she was on the show but you had that bit cut out didn’t you? You’re a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully. Karma got ya. Sir Rod Stewart.”