NastyChef

MASTERCHEF judge Gregg Wallace has revealed his unsavoury past—as a football hooligan whose recipe for marriage was a string of secret lovers.

The genial food expert sensationally admitted to "f***ing up" and squandering vast sums on mistresses, bar bills and fast cars.

He was even arrested for football thuggery—then later lost his wife and home when his £7million business went bust.

Gregg, 42, said: "It was madness. I b*ggered everything up, absolutely. I lost everything and I was just falling—wondering when I'd hit the bottom."

Baths

The burly Cockney—who co-hosts the BBC2 show with chef John Torode—told how he:

DISCOVERED as a boy his alcoholic dad wasn't his real father.

PALLED UP with Millwall's vicious Bushwacker soccer yobs.

THIEVED from bosses as he went from job to job.

WED a woman who left him after just six weeks.

Gregg's rags-to-riches tale started in Peckham—the tough south London suburb made famous in Only Fools And Horses. He lived with his brother, parents Alan and Mary, and grandparents in a small house with no bathroom.

Every time they needed a bath they traipsed several streets away to a friend's house. Alan, an electrician, turned to booze, while Mary, an accounts clerk, was having a long affair with her boss, Gerry.

Gregg was 12 when his parents split. Two years later he found out that Gerry was his real father. "My dad knew, which explains his coldness towards me," he said. "Gerry had been a friendly face in my life ever since I could remember.

"He looked after my mum as best he could, and secretly gave her money. They ended up getting married."

That year Gregg dropped out of school but still hung around with old classmates—who by now were in the notorious Bushwacker gang.

He got caught up in a vicious clash between them and police after a Millwall v Brighton match at the old Den Stadium.

"I knew what was going to go on," he recalled. "I walked to the car park and there was mayhem—people throwing bricks and bottles.

"I was in no man's land between a line of police with dogs and Millwall fans.

"A cop pushed me and I told him I was going to take his number. Then he set a dog on me. I didn't hit anyone—it's hard to with a dog on your arm." Gregg was convicted of threatening behaviour and fined —but it wasn't his first offence.

In his first job at the Royal Festival Hall, he and others would steal boxes of tea, coffee and biscuits and sell them on to cafes.

Later, as a warehouseman at Covent Garden market, he was arrested and sacked for thieving. But he went on to carve out his own business selling European veg and salads to restaurants.

His firm was called George Allans—and as the money poured in Gregg adopted a playboy lifestyle.

He had a plush home in Richmond, west London, and several cars including a £55,000 Mercedes convertible. Every day he got taxis to restaurants for lunch and dinner, where he would drink only £180 bottles of Krug champagne.

He said: "I went f***ing bananas. No matter how fast I spent it, the money kept coming in." He got married first to Christine, who ran off with a flower-market salesman after a few weeks. He then met chef Denise, and had two children Tom, now 13, and Libby, 11. But Gregg freely admits to "loads and loads" of affairs.

He said: "As long as I was home when the kids woke up in the morning, she could overlook the other women. That was the rule.

"There was her life, there was my life and there were holidays together." But the marriage unravelled when his firm went into receivership six years ago.

At the same time he lost his presenter's job on BBC1's Saturday Kitchen to Antony Worrall Thompson. Gregg said: "In a matter of weeks it all came crashing down. My wife's BMW car was going to go, along with her holidays, haircuts and wardrobe.

"She kept saying: ‘You'll be OK. You always make money.' But it wasn't what I needed. I needed someone who'd roll up their sleeves with me."

Fierce

They got divorced—and she kept the house while he got custody of the kids. Gregg then had to rebuild his life from scratch.

He set up HomeGrownDirect, selling produce from Secretts Farm in Surrey to London restaurants and chefs including Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

Then in 2005 he was offered MasterChef and Celebrity MasterChef.

He freely admits to fierce rows with co-host John about who should win, saying "You have no idea how heated it gets. There are times when I really want someone, and he says, ‘This woman is never cooking for me again.'

But whenever we have a serious fall-out, we fix a drink."

Gregg, who writes for the BBC's food magazine, has also bought a new house in Whitstable, Kent, and last year brought out his book, A Cook's Year.

He said: "I've never been happier. I'm a different person now—a phoenix from the ashes."