OHMYGOSSIP — Gregg Wallace thinks he is a “stooge” for John Torode on ‘MasterChef’. The 56-year-old television presenter thinks of himself as his co-star’s assistant on the BBC cooking competition, because he isn’t a chef despite his knowledge of food and running a restaurant. Speaking on the ‘White Wine Question Time’ podcast with Kate Thornton, Gregg said: “The problem for me on TV is that ‘MasterChef’ won’t let me cook. They only want John to cook, so no-one ever sees me cooking. “They want someone standing next to John explaining what the dishes are, and of course he can’t explain it to the camera so they need a stooge.” Gregg rose to fame in the culinary business after he first sold vegetables at a stand in Covent Garden before he set up a greengrocer business. He later opened his own restaurant in 2010 and a bar and grill in 2012, after joining the show as a co-presenter and judge alongside the 55-year-old celebrity chef. However, Gregg has defended his lack of culinary skills by reminding fans that a number of celebrity chefs started off without any kitchen experience. He added: “There are people on television that aren’t chefs like the Hairy Bikers and Delia Smith. “People may not be aware that Jamie Oliver was not a chef. By the time he was famous he had never run a kitchen.” It comes after Gregg previously revealed he lived on a diet of McDonald’s, kebabs and fish finger sandwiches during his younger years before he learned how to cook. He said: “I didn’t look after myself particularly well in those first years of living alone. My diet was fish finger sandwiches, fry ups, McDonald’s and kebabs.”