John Torode has described recent allegations of historical misconduct involving his MasterChef co-host Gregg Wallace as "truly upsetting" in his first statement since Wallace made headlines. Shared this afternoon on Instagram,

It was announced that Wallace had stepped away from the BBC cooking show due to an investigation into historical misconduct allegations. Since then, further complaints about alleged inappropriate sexual behaviour have been made, while fellow TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp also accused him of making unwanted sexual comments to her.

Gregg Wallace started out as a wholesale greengrocer but soon parlayed that into a career in broadcasting, hosting something called Veg Talk on BBC Radio 4 and being the original presenter for Saturday Kitchen (he was replaced after a year.