A HAIRDRESSER who was dubbed Britain’s rudest man after starring in Come Dine With Me is now locked in yet another a bitter row.
Marcello Marino, 55, appeared on telly almost two decades ago but says people still recognise him on the street to this day.
The Kent-based dad earned his harsh title after insulting all of his fellow contestants’ hairstyles at every dinner party, comparing their food to dead skin and sick bags, and suggesting they’d picked their wardrobes up for cheap from charity stores.
He told The Sun: “I was a very naughty boy.
“I was called the most rudest person in England. I had death threats and all.
“But I’m a nice person – that’s why I’m still in business.”
And now Marcello, who says it was all an act when he was on screen, is at war with his water company.
The dad claims his hairdressing business lost £65,000 when Southern Water forced him out of his Ramsgate salon to repair a sewer pipe.
He, wife Yaice, 41, their teenage daughters and one-year-old son live above the salon, and were also kicked out of their home.
It was that same home where Marcello hosted his guests on Come Dine With Me in 2011.
The dad claims the firm agreed to pay for his loss of earnings – but have now changed their tune.
The company said it found the pipe belonged to him, therefore the loss of earnings falls on his insurance.
But Marcello’s not convinced, he told us: “I’m fighting until the end – I’m fuming.
“I’ve been treated unbelievably.
“What really makes me angry is they say ‘it’s nothing to do with us, it’s a private sewer’.”
The hairdresser said he’d had issues with the smell around his store and after countless back and forths, Southern Water agreed to take a look.
Marcello said: “It started in 2022 when we noticed there was always a really bad smell in the front corner of my shop.
“I lived upstairs and always used the entrance through the salon – but the entrance into the flat the drain was just leaking and leaking.
“We complained and filed a claim with our insurance.
To this day, one of the top 30 moments on the much-loved show shows on YouTube under “Marcello finds hair in his food”.
In the clip, the Italian rips apart his dinner host’s wardrobe – before insulting every contestant’s hair.
“I don’t know what she puts together, I think she must get it all very cheap in a charity shop.”
He then says: “Lydia, why did you not do your hair for tonight?
“You’ve just put it straight back – beautiful face, but a shame about your hair.”
Marcello then turns to another guest and asks: “What happened to your hair, then?
“You’ve got a terrible haircut, you know that?”
The guest then turns to another man: “Now, what happened to your hair?
“It looks very greasy – a nice wig would suit you.”
Marcello then claims to find a hair in his food – and not from his host’s head.
He consistently insulted his fellow contestants’ fashion sense and hair – and their food – including
Marcello says: “How can I eat that now? I’ve just seen your bedroom.
“I’m not joking, can I see your kitchen first before I eat that?
“You sure it’s not some skin or dirty old, or someone’s dead body skin or something?”
“They came out and stuck a camera down the drain. Then they told us that it was the responsibility of Southern Water because it was a sewer issue.”
He says there was one point when works started – directly outside his salon.
Marcello recalled: “It was in the middle of the road – a big, big hole.
“They shut my shop for days to do this too. The whole ordeal has interrupted my business for two years now.”
Then in October last year, after months of back and forth, matters felt like they got worse for Marcello.
He recalled: “They tell us that the building is not safe.
I have had to be resilient. I was just playing a character when I was on Come Dine With Me but I have had to be strong like then.
Marcello Marino
“They just came round and said ‘you need to close your shop and the building is not safe’. And when I wasn’t sure why, they didn’t help me.
“In the end, I had to ask a friend to give me a nice place. And we moved in on the same evening but without any money.
“It took us six weeks to get everything sorted with the insurance company. It’s been very, very stressful.”
Southern Water then shifted Marcello, his wife and their three children, into a rental at its expense for the weeks it took to fix.
The authority then repaired his entire studio, after ripping up its floors – at its own cost.
But the 55-year-old said: “We got in writing they would pay loss of earnings.
Relive some of Come Dine With Me’s most hilarious, dramatic, and outrageous TV moments from years past.
Channel 4’s competitive reality cooking show, which is complete with commentary from Dave Lamb, knows how to turn up the heat as tensions in and out of the kitchen often reach boiling point.
From food fights to major bust ups, let’s take a look back at some of Come Dine With Me’s most outrageous moments.
Dessert out the window
One thing after another went wrong for contestant Lee during a classic episode of Come Dine With Me. The host failed to serve his whole meal, and he burnt his creme brûlées, then burnt his hand, and then threw the desserts out of the window.
The show’s narrator Dave poked fun at Lee’s mishap as he told viewers: “As the crème brûlées cools off in the garden, the temperature in the kitchen is on full whack.
Meanwhile, the guests shout through from the other room, asking when they might receive their starter, causing Lee’s temper to worsen.
“If this was in a restaurant, I’d have walked out ages ago,” said one of the guests in confessional, before they all gave Lee the lowest score in the show’s history.
Waste not want not
Come Dine With Me viewers were left gagging after a disgusting scene between contestant couple Sophie and Lucas, who were hosted by Ruth and Martin.
Notice Sophie wasn’t eating the main, Ruth asked: “Are you not going to try the lamb Sophie?” to which she responded by taking a bite.
But, when it wasn’t to Sophie’s liking, she turned to her boyfriend Lucas, who ate the already chewed meat straight out of her mouth.
Looking mortified, Ruth exclaimed: “You didn’t share the lamb just then, did you?”
Explaining that it’s a regular thing they do, Sophie said: “Yeah, I thought I’d try it again but then I changed my mind, so I thought I’d just spit it into his mouth, it’s a thing that we do.”
Adding to the awkward atmosphere, Lucas jumped in: “Sometimes I get her to chew my food up for me first and spit it into my mouth.”
However, Ruth and Martin didn’t think it was normal and shivers ran down the dinner tables as they stated that they wouldn’t be participating in such behaviour.
‘Get out of my house!’
As every dinner party guest knows, certain topics should be avoided when eating, but in one episode Claire and Robinson dive right into the topic of politics and voting.
Both holding strong opinions, they immediately butted heads.
“I really believe strongly that if you don’t vote, then you shouldn’t have a say. Absolutely say nothing,” Claire fired back to her fellow contestant Robinson, who said he was disillusioned with British politicians.
Claire only got more angry as the evening progressed, dissing the decor of host Richard, telling him his family caravan outside was “minging.”
However, everyone at the table thought Claire was out of order and decided to move the rest of their dinner into the caravan, leaving Claire out in the cold.
However, in an unexpected turn of events, Claire ended up winning the £1,000 prize that week.
Down for the count
Come Dine With Me sometimes takes pleasure in the misfortune of others, and host Dave ran with a new joke when contestant Hali face planted the pavement on the way to dinner.
“And last to the party it’s Hali,” Dave exclaimed, before adding, “oh she’s hit the deck!”
Hali fell straight off the pavement into the middle of the road, but luckily was unharmed and she continued on to the party, during which Dave continued to bring up her recent tumble.
“Now be careful. Mind that step!” he yelled as Hali moved down into the garden to greet the other contestants.
“Steady! Steady!” he said as she grabbed the hand of one of the other guests.
“Well done,” Dave added, as she made it down in one piece.
‘Rubbish’ food
Come Dine With Me contestant Salvo couldn’t take the heat when it was his turn to serve up the grub in a classic 2011 episode. The Sicilian host Salvo decided to serve up his guests, Brenda, Amanda and Zed, a pasta dish followed by tiramisu.
However, after offending the other three guests earlier in the week, it was time for them to get their own back, so Zed was quick to question why he chose to keep it so simple.
It didn’t take long for Salvo to fly off the handle.
“I’m really… You’ve stressed me today. I really wanna have a nice conversation today and everything, and you’ve been pinching me all day, ‘easy menu, easy that,’ blah, blah. I’m not, seriously, I’m not taking that today!” he yelled in a strop.
The scene cut to confessional where Amanda said: “I thought it would be me that kicked off with him. I did not have to say a word.
“I was all ready to, like, slag his food off, criticise him. Any fluff on the carpet, I was gonna give it to him.”
Come Dine With Me goes French
Tensions always run high as Come Dine With Me progresses each night, but one contestant took the opportunity to get one over on her competitors on the first night.
As the first to arrive at Andrea’s house, one guest pretended to only speak French.
Panicking, Andrea was failing to communicate with the supposed French woman until the next guest arrived.
“This is Tom,” she said as she turned and pointed, adding: “This lady is French.”
She greeted him in French and introduced herself as “Mrs Pineapple,” which Andrea seemed to pick up on.
Moments later, the woman revealed that it was all a joke, shocking the pair by switching to English and asking, “So where did you come from tonight?”
They were utterly stunned as Tom walked off screen, exclaiming: “She’s taking the p*ss!”
Perhaps that wasn’t the best way to start off the week?
‘Sad Little Life’
Come Dine With Me has had more than its share of outrageous moments, but Peter Marsh takes the cake (although not the prize money) for his comments in a 2016 episode of the Channel 4 show.
Hosting on the final night, Peter was furious when he found out that he’d come in last place, but still had to announce the winner. He ignored runners up Charlotte and Adam, immediately turning on winner Jane.
Shaking his head, he said: “You won Jane. Enjoy the money, I hope it makes you very happy. Dear Lord, what a sad little life, Jane.”
He continued: “You ruined my night, completely, so you could have the money, but I hope now you spend it on getting some lessons in grace and decorum because you have all the grace of a reversing dump truck without any tyres on.”
Viewers found Peter’s comments so hilarious that he became a meme and the words “sad little life Jane” have since been found on all manner of merchandise, including t-shirts and mugs.
Peter Marshall take two
Come Dine With Me has since experienced another Peter-esque guest in the form of contestant Heather, who was livid to learn she’d come in fourth place.
“Someone’s got to come fourth, haven’t they,” guest Toby said, trying to console that night’s host, but Heather really wasn’t having any of it as she hit back at him.
“No, not really, because my food was better than any of yours. Seriously, I am so shocked that you gave me what you did,” Heather raged.
She continued: “My presentation was amazing and far better than any of yours and I came fourth. No, I’m sorry, I’m so upset by all of you. I’ve been so honest with all of you.”
Heather then pointed her finger at fellow contestant Jeff and said: “I could give you a zero because yours was f***ing s**t.”
Heather couldn’t contain her anger and decided to storm off, but since they were all at her house, she couldn’t go far.
“I’ve had enough. Sorry, I’m going to bed. Forget it,” she yelled as she departed.
“Roughly, I think I have lost about £65,000 while this has been going on. They’ve given me some but I am still out of pocket.”
“They don’t take me seriously.”
He continued: “When it was happening my son was just six months old and living upstairs.
“I have had to be resilient. I was just playing a character when I was on Come Dine With Me but I have had to be strong like then.
“I’m a fighter.
“You need to stick up for yourself. I am lucky to have really good friends. You need to be strong. I got cheated.”
Southern Water told The Sun: “We appreciate the disruption felt by this customer and his family.
“Investigations confirmed that the sewer pipe requiring repair was the property of the homeowner.
“As an act of goodwill, we carried out the repair anyway and covered the necessary building works costs.
“Our customer team remains in contact with this customer to support as appropriate following this work.”
