Gregg Wallace 'happy' with MasterChef catchphrase

Gregg Wallace has revealed he isn't sick of his Masterchef catchphrase yet. The TV chef, who is known for saying "cooking doesn't get tougher than this", admitted it follows him wherever he goes. "Cab drivers shout it out of their windows, van drivers shout it out to me - I'm quite happy; it's quite alright, it's harmless isn't it, absolutely harmless," he said. He added: "My daughter, she plays hockey - she's the goalkeeper, of course she's got a mask on. I put on Twitter 'How am I going to know it's my daughter?' and somebody tweeted, 'She'll be the one shouting out 'it doesn't get tougher than this'." Gregg said he can't understand the British idea of a 'weekly shop' and admonishes the ritual with fervour. "I don't know where the idea of a weekly shop came from. Definitely people on the continent don't understand that concept," he said. "They go 'what do you mean, you buy all your food once a week?' How would you know on a Saturday morning what you're going to fancy for tea on a Thursday? I just don't understand it." He added: "I don't know where it's come from, I think it's probably supermarket jargon that's just come part of our national psyche." Masterchef begins on BBC One on Thursday night.

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.