John Torode was sacked by BBC for ‘directing racial slur' at MasterChef employee
The TV chef has said he had 'no recollection' of the alleged incident, which was substantiated after a seven-month investigation into the show.
BBC News claims that Torode used the N-word while speaking to a member of staff towards the end of filming.
Both Torode and Wallace were sacked as presenters of the cookery show this week after a seven-month investigation upheld allegations made against the pair.
More than half of the 83 allegations levied against Wallace were substantiated, including one of unwelcome physical contact, but the report also upheld one accusation of 'offensive racist language' allegedly used by Torode.
Addressing the allegation of using a racist slur, Torode said he was 'shocked and saddened' by the claim, adding that he knows any racial language 'is wholly unacceptable in any environment'. He denies the allegation.
In the wake of the findings, the spotlight has been placed on Wallace and Torode's working relationship, with a source telling BBC News: 'Clearly they had a good chemistry when the cameras were rolling. But you rarely saw them interact when the cameras were off.'
John Torode and Gregg Wallace 'were never friends' (PA Media)
Another anonymous person who worked on the show claimed their dynamic 'seemed off', adding that Torode would roll his eyes when Wallace made alleged inappropriate comments.
The relationship between Torode and Wallace, who both presented the revamped cooking programme since 2005, has always been a point of confusion among viewers.
Despite being Wallace's best man in 2016, Torode later claimed he had never been friends with his co-host, telling The Mirror in 2017: 'We've not been to each other's houses. If we go away to somewhere like South Africa, we do things separately. If we do go out for a drink, I'll invariably be at one end of a big old table and he'll be at the other.'
However, Wallace had a different view, telling ITV series Lorraine that same year: 'I film with John six or seven months of the year, so we are very close to each other physically, and emotionally we are very close to each other.
'What's great about having a partnership is that if one of you is a bit off, a bit down, the other one naturally steps up, so I rely on John a lot.'
Former 'MasterChef' hosts Gregg Wallace and John Torode (BBC)
Wallace has said he is 'deeply sorry for any hurt caused' after the report's findings were published and that he also 'challenged the remaining issue of unwanted touching, but [has] had to accept a difference in perception'.
In a now-deleted Instagram post, he also said he was 'exonerated of the most serious allegations', after being cleared of 38 claims.
The presenter faced multiple accusations, including claims that he made inappropriate sexual jokes, asked for the phone numbers of female production staff, and behaved unprofessionally around female colleagues on set.
The report noted that during the course of the investigation, which was over a seven-month period, Wallace was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and said that the findings should be viewed in the context of his neurodiversity.

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Fox News
9 hours ago
- Fox News
Grammy-winning artist says she was encouraged to have an abortion after unexpected pregnancy
R&B singer-and-songwriter Victoria Monét revealed she was pressured to have an abortion after learning she was pregnant with her daughter, during an appearance on former First Lady Michelle Obama's podcast on Wednesday. Monét, who won Grammys in 2024 for best new artist, best R&B album and best engineered album, shared about how motherhood impacted her career after giving birth to her daughter Hazel in 2021. Not everyone in her professional circle was supportive of her pregnancy, she recalled. The singer explained it was difficult to share the celebratory news because she understood it might not be received well by her business associates. "So when I got pregnant, I was an independent artist. I was working with this company called Platoon working out of the UK. And when you're an artist, though you're a human, you're technically the business," Monét said on the podcast. "So, to have to explain to someone who is a partner in your business that your business may slow down because of pregnancy, is difficult, but it's also something that you're supposed to feel celebratory about." Platoon is a London-based music distribution and creative services company which helps boost independent artists before they sign deals with major labels. After breaking the news to her business partner over Zoom, Monét said she was given a presentation telling her how difficult and expensive it was to raise a child. "In retrospect, it was really, really disheartening," Monét admitted. "I had a person on my team, though the intentions were good, really, really hurt my feelings because they made a PowerPoint presentation to me about how difficult it will [sic] be for me." "And the finale of the presentation was, what's the rush? So, it felt like an encouragement to get an abortion. So that was really, really hurtful," she shared. Monét called it a "very emotional" experience but said it left her with a "fight" to prove that motherhood didn't have to derail her career. "And I walked out of that meeting…with that same fight that I had when I left home. I'm going to do this. It's my body, and I'm going to make it work even if it's hard," she recalled. She didn't believe the person meant to "harm" her but wanted her to understand that having a child was a "big decision" that would impact her career. Ultimately, the incident came "full circle," she explained, because one of her most popular songs, "On My Mama," she wrote about becoming a mother. "She's been the biggest blessing," Monét said of her daughter. "I had these preconceived notions that having a child would suspend my career or make things even more difficult, but God just was like, 'nope,' but it's been so fun." Fox News Digital reached out to Platoon for comment.

CNN
10 hours ago
- CNN
How Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham went from lovers to bandmates and back again
People in entertainment Music MediaFacebookTweetLink Follow When Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac, they helped propel the band to a commercial and creative pinnacle. For the couple, though, joining the band was the beginning of the end of their love story. Nicks and Buckingham's infamously tumultuous relationship, which began in the early 1970s, ended just two years into their tenure in Fleetwood Mac. Though they've been broken up for nearly 50 years, their mutual antipathy remains as legendary as their musical output. 'I met her when I was about 16,' Buckingham said in a 2009 BBC documentary about the band. 'It's been most of my life. Sadly, for the lion's share of those years, there has been distance and animosity of some kind, mixed in with everything else, too. It's never been just one thing.' And yet, after decades of performing love songs onstage while ripping into each other backstage, Nicks and Buckingham seem to have paused their ongoing feud to rerelease the only album they made as a duo, 1973's 'Buckingham Nicks.' Whether the pair will do more to promote the album than share cryptic corresponding Instagram posts remains to be seen. Their acrimony fueled enduring, influential music, but any reunion between the two likely won't be as effortless as their sound. Nicks and Buckingham met in 1966 as high school students in California's Bay Area. Though they played guitar a bit together, it wasn't until they were both attending San Jose State University that they officially teamed up musically, when Buckingham invited Nicks to join his first band, the psychedelic-folk rock group Fritz. The pair resisted romance until after Fritz broke up in the early '70s. 'I think there was always something between me and Lindsey, but nobody in that band really wanted me as their girlfriend because I was just too ambitious for them,' Nicks told Cameron Crowe in a 1977 interview for Rolling Stone. The pair fell for each other while writing 'Buckingham Nicks,' a folk-rock record released in 1973. Despite the talent evident on the album (not to mention its cover art, in which Nicks and Buckingham appear nude), 'Buckingham Nicks' flopped almost everywhere –– except Birmingham, Alabama, where local DJs regularly played the record and developed the duo a small but devoted fanbase. (It's also where the pair played their final show before joining Fleetwood Mac.) 'That album holds up pretty well,' Buckingham told Dan Rather in 2015. 'It did not do well commercially, but it certainly was noticed. More importantly, it was noticed by Mick Fleetwood.' The Fleetwood Mac co-founder discovered 'Buckingham Nicks' at a pivotal time for the band, which was hemorrhaging guitarists and vocalists, including founding member Peter Green. Fleetwood was seeking a new recording space when he met an engineer who played him a record he had produced. It was 'Buckingham Nicks.' A few weeks after hearing the album, and shortly after losing yet another band member, Fleetwood asked Buckingham to join the band without having heard him play live. Buckingham remembered saying he wouldn't go without Nicks. 'Didn't think about Stevie one way or the other, 'cause I was looking for a guitar player,' Fleetwood said in the BBC documentary. 'And very quickly we realized they were totally joined at the hip.' Fleetwood Mac's 1975 eponymous album was the first to feature Buckingham and Nicks –– and the group's first No. 1 album in the US. Many of the album's enduring hits were written by Nicks, including the heartbreaking ballad 'Landslide' and 'Rhiannon,' a haunting song about a Welsh witch. (Witchiness would soon become integral to Nicks' onstage persona.) While Nicks and Buckingham were still dating when they joined the group, their relationship was already deteriorating under the weight of working together so closely, Nicks said in 2009. 'I think we kind of all made a little silent vow — let's fix these relationships for right now,' she said. Nicks and Buckingham's relationship was on the brink of collapse throughout the recording of what would become Fleetwood Mac's most successful record, 'Rumours.' Nicks wrote 'Dreams,' the group's first and only No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 single, about the imminent demise of her relationship, she said. But her take on heartbreak was mellow, if melancholy: 'Say women, they will come and they will go,' she sings. 'When the rain washes you clean, you'll know.' 'In other words, we're all gonna come out of this,' she said in 2009. 'And Lindsey, you and I will come out of this, and we'll be friends, and it'll be okay.' Buckingham's rebuttal, the upbeat 'Go Your Own Way,' was 'angry and nasty,' Nicks said. 'Loving you isn't the right thing to do,' Buckingham sings. 'How can I ever change things that I feel?' Nicks said in the 2009 documentary that she had thought Buckingham's lyrics accusing a lover of 'shacking up' were 'extremely disrespectful.' 'It may be a rather truthful and blunt observation,' Buckingham countered. 'But that's the way you write songs.' Their fraying relationship ended during the recording of 'Rumours,' after months of playing on tracks that were not-so-secretly written about the other. As Nicks recalled to the BBC, Nicks told Buckingham after one last fight that she would fly home without him. The behind-the-scenes tumult only fed audience interest in 'Rumours,' which became the band's defining album, spending 31 weeks at No. 1. 'Everyone knew that these songs, the subject matter, was what we were living,' Buckingham said in 2015. 'And I think there was an investment in not just the music but in the people who made the music because of that.' The album was fueled by heartbreak, rage and a massive 'community bag of cocaine,' said album engineer Ken Caillat. Nicks' addiction to cocaine began during the recording of 'Rumours,' she said, a habit she picked up 'just to get through' the process. Nicks started writing and recording solo material while making 'Tusk,' the experimental follow-up to 'Rumours' that Buckingham spearheaded. In 1981, she released 'Bella Donna,' which featured the hit 'Edge of Seventeen,' the first of four solo albums she made in the '80s. In 1985, Nicks sought treatment at the Betty Ford Center for her cocaine addiction. But when she left rehab, she was prescribed Klonopin, a tranquilizer she became dependent on. As a result, she was often absent from recording sessions for the group's 1987 album 'Tango in the Night.' 'Being in Fleetwood Mac, even to this day, is very tense,' Nicks said in 2009. 'In my solo career, I'm not tense, I'm not uptight.' In 1987, the band met at member Christine McVie's home to discuss their upcoming concerts in support of 'Tango in the Night.' Buckingham refused to join the group on tour. 'When Lindsey said, 'I'm not going,' I think I got up and ran across the room and tried to strangle him,' Nicks remembered in the BBC documentary. 'And then he chased me out of the house through Christine's driveway, and we had a huge fight. That was that. He was done.' The group made one more album with Nicks and without Buckingham, 1990's 'Behind the Mask,' but Nicks left the group soon after, when Fleetwood refused to let her release 'Silver Springs,' a B-side she wrote about Buckingham, on a box set of Nicks' solo work. Fleetwood Mac reformed with Nicks and Buckingham in 1997 for 'The Dance,' a successful tour tied to the 20th anniversary of 'Rumours' that also spawned a No. 1 live album. And every night, Buckingham would join Nicks on guitar as she sang 'Silver Springs.' She often ended the performance by resting her head on Buckingham's back. The following year, the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and spent the next several years touring on and off, recording one last album, 2003's 'Say You Will.' Despite spending extended periods of time on and offstage with each other, Nicks was loath to get close to Buckingham again. 'Lindsey and I will never be touchy feely friends,' she said in 2009. 'Maybe later on down the line, all those wounds will heal.' In 2018, as the group was gearing up for yet another reunion tour, Fleetwood Mac started to splinter again. Buckingham was ousted from the group that year, telling Rolling Stone that his manager said Nicks never wanted to perform onstage with him again. Buckingham admitted to Rolling Stone that he'd had an 'outburst' stemming from the choice to introduce the band onstage with 'Rhiannon,' Nicks' witchy hit. Fleetwood said the group had reached an 'impasse' with Buckingham on tour. 'Our relationship has always been volatile,' Buckingham said of Nicks to Rolling Stone. 'We were never married, but we might as well have been. Some couples get divorced after 40 years. They break their kids' hearts and destroy everyone around them because it's just hard.' When Christine McVie died in 2022, Nicks said she doubted that Fleetwood Mac could reunite again without her. At McVie's memorial, Nicks spoke with Buckingham briefly after an extended period without contact. 'I dealt with Lindsey for as long as I could,' she told Rolling Stone in 2024. 'You could not say that I did not give him more than 300 million chances.' Less than a year after that interview, though, Nicks and Buckingham have seemingly patched things up to release 'Buckingham Nicks,' which will be available to stream for the first time on September 19. Aside from their Instagram posts, neither musician has commented on the rerelease of the only album made as a duo.


Eater
12 hours ago
- Eater
An Inventive Koreatown Ice Cream Shop Is Closing After Just Eight Months
is an editor of the Southern California/Southwest region, who covers the evolving landscape of LA's food scene. Liu's Creamery, an extension of Hong Kong and Taiwanese bakery and cafe Liu's, is closing at the beginning of August after about eight months in the neighborhood. The ice cream spot, which started scooping in January 2025, will have its last day of business on August 3. Liu's Creamery, located right next door to Liu's Cafe, serves Asian-inflected ice cream, including Taiwan milk tea, honey toast, and ginger pear. Pastry chef Isabell Manibusan, who also oversees desserts at Liu's Cafe and modern Korean restaurant Danbi, developed the menu for Liu's Creamery. The closure was announced in an Instagram post on July 24. Liu's Creamery will operate from Friday through Sunday, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., until its closure. Liu's Cafe will not be affected by the closure. Though the closure is a loss for the neighborhood, the post promises that something 'exciting' will take its place soon. SF Gate visits Tomat For SF Gate, Karen Palmer writes of a recent visit to Tomat, a London-inspired restaurant on the outskirts of LAX. Opened by first-time restaurateurs Harry Posner and Natalie Dial, Tomat is open all day, serving pastries in the morning and proteins off the wood-fired grill at night. Does the Torrance hospital really have a great breakfast burrito? A breakfast burrito from the Torrance hospital has been making the rounds on TikTok and Reddit, with some claiming that it is among the best in LA. Yusra Farzan went to investigate for LAist and found that while the burrito was a good deal at $7, and was overall very solid, it may not quite be the best in the region. Summer collaborations at the Benjamin The next two collaborations for the Benjamin's With Friends dinner series just dropped. On August 10, chefs Michael and Bryan Voltaggio will revisit dishes from Michael's restaurant, Ink. A portion of the proceeds from the evening will go to support LA chef Sonny Sweetman, who is currently undergoing treatment for cancer. On August 26, Andrew and Michelle Muñoz of Moo's Craft Barbecue will serve dishes that blend Texas barbecue with the Benjamin's bistro sensibilities. A fundraiser for Indivisible Arts Notable Los Angeles barman Matthew Biancaniello will embark on a 21-mile swim from Catalina Island to Palos Verdes on September 25. The GoFundMe effort is to raise funds for Indivisible Arts, a nonprofit that supports underserved youth. To deal with losing his restaurant in the Woolsey Fire, back surgery, and personal loss, Biancaniello has found relief through ocean swims. — Mona Holmes, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest Eater LA All your essential food and restaurant intel delivered to you Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.