Nadiya Hussain has been without a kitchen for almost a month and a half, and it’s not going well. “I’ve literally gone bonkers without it,” says the Luton-born cookery writer. She’s been nipping to her sister’s house five minutes down the road to cook, even though her sister will happily just feed her. “I rely on my kitchen so much, for my own sanity, for my own mental wellbeing,” says Hussain. “I don’t know who I am without my kitchen! I said it out loud to my friend. She goes, ‘You are not defined by your kitchen’. I said, ‘I think you’ll find I am!’”
For many of us though, it’s Hussain herself who’s a defining force in the kitchen. Since the moment she won the sixth series of the Great British Bake Off in 2015, dissolving us – and the usually impassive Mary Berry – into tearful messes, she’s brought us recipes full of colour, fun and flavour. Her cookbooks and TV shows have taught us to bake (Nadiya’s Everyday Baking), cut waste (Cook Once, Eat Twice), throw together curries (Nadiya’s Simple Spices), and feed our families well, but fast (Time To Eat). It’s all cheerful, tasty, nourishing stuff.
