MasterChef presenter John Torode has been sacked by the BBC following his use of an “extremely offensive racist term” during an incident he says occurred “sometime between 2018 or 2019”.
But it’s not the first time the BBC presenter has been accused of cultural insensitivity. In fact, around the same time as the racism incident, Torode was battling separate accusations of cultural insensitivity after an on-air scandal that led the Malaysian Prime Minister to get involved.
The scandal occurred in April 2018, during the 14th series of MasterChef. In the 13th episode of the series, Malaysian-born chef Zaleha Olpin was eliminated after John Torode and Gregg Wallace heavily criticised her chicken rendang recipe, which was served with a side of nasi lemak.
Before presenting judges with her dish, Olpin explained it was a “childhood favourite” and remembered it as the first thing her mother had cooked for her husband when she brought him home to meet her parents.
But the judges were not impressed. Wallace complained that the skin of the chicken wasn’t “crispy” enough while Torode branded the dish “a mistake.” In response, a disappointed Olpin told the cameras, “I have worked a lot, really worked hard today and I thought they would like it.”
The judges’ comments provoked outrage from the citizens of Malaysia, who rightly pointed out that rendang should not be crispy. “As a Malaysian, if I could, I would personally go to the show and rendang their head,” wrote Jin Wee in the pages of the Star, a Malaysian newspaper. “Uncultured swine, doesn’t know variety of cuisine and claims to be MasterChef?”
Meanwhile Malaysian journalist and food writer Jahabar Sadiq told the BBC the criticism was “ignorant”. “They clearly weren't familiar with food from other parts of the world because if they were, they would have had the knowledge to know what real nasi lemak is,” he told BBC News.
Their criticism ruffled so many feathers that the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, even waded into the debate, tweeting “Who eats ‘crispy’ chicken rendang?” alongside a picture of the dish.
Despite the outrage, Torode and Wallace stood their ground and refused to apologise for their criticism of Olpin’s dish. During a Good Morning Britain appearance shortly after the scandal broke. “Rest assured, the best cooks will always go through,” Torode said. “Look, I did a whole series on Malaysia, Malaysian food is fantastic, absolutely love it.”
The outrage was then compounded by Torode’s comments on Twitter, where he was responding to people who took issue with the rendang episode. Following his replies, he signed off numerous tweets with the phrase “namaste”, a Sanskrit greeting used in Indian and Nepal, not Malaysia.
This prompted a Change.org petition calling for Torode and Wallace to apologise, not only for their rendang criticism but for the use of “namaste” in Torode’s tweets. The petition, which gained over 9,000 signatures, claimed Torode had “show[n] no respect towards both Indonesian and Indian people as Namaste is a Hindu custom, which originate[s] from India, and ]has] nothing to do with Indonesia.”
It has been revealed that Torode was involved in an incident shortly after the chicken rendang scandal during which he used an “extremely offensive racist term”.
“The allegation is that I did so sometime in 2018 or 2019, in a social situation, and that the person I was speaking with did not believe that it was intended in a malicious way and that I apologised immediately afterwards,” Torode disclosed on Monday.
“I have absolutely no recollection of any of this, and I do not believe that it happened. However, I want to be clear that I’ve always had the view that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment. I’m shocked and saddened by the allegation as I would never wish to cause anyone any offence.”
Torode was sacked from MasterChef on Wednesday and claims he found this out through a BBC News story. Meanwhile, the BBC said in a statement: “John Torode has identified himself as having an upheld allegation of using racist language.
“This allegation — which involves an extremely offensive racist term being used in the workplace — was investigated and substantiated by the independent investigation led by law firm Lewis Silkin.
“We will not tolerate racist language of any kind and, as we have already said, we told Banijay UK, the makers of MasterChef, that action must be taken.
“John Torode’s contract will not be renewed.”
