I have a massive sweet tooth. I don’t think I’ve ever met a cake or a biscuit I didn’t like. So I was really chuffed to get this gig [presenting Bake Off: The Professionals]. I imagine somewhere there’s a montage of all the times that I was caught snaffling things I shouldn’t. And you know what? I don’t care. I regret nothing.
I love cereal so much. I have to be careful what I have in the house because otherwise a box of Frosted Shreddies is not going to last longer than a night. It’s always been a celebratory thing, or commiseratory as well. Some comics if they’ve had a bad gig, they’ll buy a bottle of vodka on the way home. I would buy a packet of Fruit ’n Fibre and two pints of milk.
I’ve never liked spice, still don’t like it now. No, I’m like a lemon and herb girl in Nando’s. I’m so weak. Rubbish.
Batter can never be too soggy. I don’t know what these judges are wanging on about with “soggy bottoms”: it’s delicious. Me and my friends at university, our fantasy was someone creating a yorkshire pudding the size of a hot tub. It would be filled with gravy and we’d just lie in there, nibble a giant pea as it floated past, have a bite from the side. That was our heaven.
If I’m filming for a long period of time, I’ll take Yorkshire biscuit tea with me. It tastes malty, like you’ve dropped a biscuit in it, but it’s not sweet. I went to Canada last year for a month and I took my teabags and my own mug because I hate it when you go to a hotel room and they basically give you a thimble. I like a girthy mug.
When I did Strictly, I reverted to teenage tastes. I basically ate what the garage near where we trained sold: processed sandwiches, Monster Munch, chocolate … I’ve never eaten more and been in better shape. I’ve always had a bit of a weird relationship with food, I guess, a bit complicated to a degree, so to be able to eat anything I wanted without having to do the mental maths about calories was really lovely.
Johannes [Radebe, Taylor’s partner on Strictly] loved a pasty in the morning. Yeah, he went to town at the garage as well. I remember once we were dancing and he said: “Oh, you smell nice.” And I said: “Thanks, I’ve just had a sausage roll.”
I went to Venice with my husband before we were married. He said: “Whenever I’m in Italy, I always have tiramisu for every pudding. Then I see which one is my favourite.” And that was a gorgeous few days of having at least two tiramisus a day: we were falling in love with each other, falling in love with Venice and falling in love with tiramisu all at the same time.
It was a blow not to get a Hollywood handshake [on The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off]. But I cling on to the fact that, when we stopped filming, Prue [Leith] came back and took one of my jaffa cakes off set with her to eat. Who needs a Hollywood handshake when HRH Prue takes your biscuit away to nibble on?
After Strictly, I had to be realistic. I was just kind to myself: “You’re not going to stay looking absolutely banging for evermore, but wasn’t it nice to have that brief experience to work your body physically the hardest it has ever worked?” Sometimes I just think about what your body can do: I’ve had a kid, I’ve got bigger and smaller, it’s let me do Strictly and it’s carried me around all these years. Give it some salad and salmon. It deserves a bit of avocado occasionally.
My favourite things
Food
I love any sort of pastry. I don’t care if it’s badly cooked: if it’s soggy, fantastic; if it’s crispy, brilliant.
Drink
I love a margarita. Which is not like me, it’s obviously quite sour and bitter. But margs will always make me think of summer evenings in lockdown. Woo!
Place to eat
José on Bermondsey Street, London: it’s a little tapas place, you can’t book, and me and my husband used to live up the road from there. It really reminds me of that time in our life of being footloose and fancy free. And with really good access to jamón ibérico.
Dish to make
A Nigel Slater aubergine pasta dish that I probably whipped out of your magazine about 10 years ago. That’s become a firm favourite in our house: aubergine pasta day is always a good one.
Bake Off: The Professionals 2023 is on Tuesdays at 8pm on Channel 4
