John Torode's 'sexual comment' to Cat Deeley sparks This Morning outrage

Celebrity chef John Torode has divided This Morning viewers with a comment he aimed at ITV presenter Cat Deeley. The innuendo came just days after the star’s wife Lisa Faulkner accused his MasterChef co-star Greg Wallace of making “rude joke after rude joke” during her time on the show.

John, 59, was invited to Tuesday’s episode (October 15) of This Morning, where he demonstrated how to cook a classic toad in the hole. The Melbourne-hailing star took over the programme’s kitchen to instruct viewers on how to create the perfect autumnal dish while Cat, 47, and Ben Shephard, 49, hovered over him.

Towards the end of the segment, John pulled the hearty meal out of the oven to much applause. He then began serving up the food for himself and the This Morning hosts.

“I never thought I’d be saying to Cat Deeley ‘Here’s a little sausage for you darling’,” he joked while dishing out a portion for her. “Oh I like it, thank you,” replied the mother-of-two before pulling a face into the camera.

Swiftly moving on from John’s cheeky comment, Ben asked the TV personality whether there was a “nice” way of serving a toad in the hole. “It’s got to be done in such a way that the family has got to be excited about it,” the chef replied.

He later added that his wife Lisa Faulkner would probably be “annoyed” that he hadn’t opted to use her recipe for onion gravy on the morning magazine staple.

Fans are seemingly divided over the moment, with many taking to social media to have their say.

“I can understand how this could be construed & is not very tactful. However, it is quite innocent here, I think,” typed one user of X, formerly known as Twitter. (sic)

A second wrote: “See Lisa Faulkner you make remarks about Gregg Wallace! but what about your husband hun!”

“Everyone is triggered these days / no sense of humour,” remarked someone else, while a fourth argued: “IMHO the response to John Torode’s comment to Cat Deeley has not been an over-reaction. Men need to stop making creepy comments towards women. It’s all feeding in the bigger problem of toxic masculinity & misogyny.”

Another argued: “Oh come on @thismorning viewers, saying how disgusted they were with John Torode saying awful comment to Cat Deeley! He said he’s a little sausage! Get a life, nothing wrong with that, just a joke.”

John’s comment comes after Lisa, 52, complained about John’s MasterChef co-host Greg, 59, in an interview.

As per the Daily Mail, the actress - who won Celebrity MasterChef in 2010 - appeared at the Cheltenham Literature Festival to promote her and her husband’s new cookbook, John and Lisa’s Kitchen.

During the appearance, Lisa said: “Gregg was telling – I’m probably not allowed to say this…Gregg just told rude joke after rude joke to the crew.

“You’re just sitting there and if you’re on the front bench just chopping away thinking, ‘I’ve got ten minutes left’, and he’s saying, ‘So this girl walked into a bar…’

“And I’m going, ‘Please, I don’t want to hear this joke’.”

Gregg has since admitted Lisa’s comments regarding his conduct on the beloved BBC show have caused him “stress” but that allegations hadn’t affected his “healthy lifestyle choices”.

“I've had a fair bit of stress over the last few days, but my healthy lifestyle choices have stayed the same because that's my lifestyle. That’s what I do without thinking,” he said during an Instagram Live on Tuesday.

“Does that make sense to people? I really, really hope it does. I'm a little bit distracted at the moment, you can probably tell.”

“There are so many benefits of upping your levels of activity, so many healthy benefits,” the star continued. “I'm not going to mention the newspapers at the moment – I've got that coming at me left, right and centre.”