He's used to separating the wheat from the chaff on The Great British Bake Off, but Paul Hollywood hopes to bring a whole new meaning to the saying.
The no-nonsense telly favourite has revealed plans to grow his own wheat at his Kent home and use it to make his famous bread and cake recipes.
But Paul has ruled out following in the footsteps of Jeremy Clarkson and having a film crew follow him around as he does it.
The 56-year-old explains: “I have got a bit of land and I am going to start growing my own wheat and make the flour.
“I have got 12 acres. There is a well there that I can tap into.”
Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy, 62, documented his journey at his Diddly Squat farm in the Cotswolds for hit Amazon Prime show Clarkson’s Farm – but don’t expect Paul to do the same.
“I do not want to get it filmed,” he insists. “I just want to do it for me.”
Paul returns to Channel 4 ’s Great British Bake Off next month alongside Prue Leith, 82, Noel Fielding, 49, and Matt Lucas, 48.
It may be the 13th series of the hit programme but Paul is hoping it won’t be unlucky for him.
The latest batch of budding bakers will be desperate for one of Paul’s famous handshakes as a seal of approval. But other than avoiding a soggy bottom, what else can they do to impress him?
“You need to be very brave to do Bake Off as you have to come in front of Prue and myself and be timed,” Paul says.
“It takes a lot of bottle to go into that tent and bake.
“The timing is the hardest part to deal with. I will walk away if they say, ‘Please go away’ but it is incredible to watch them turn from amateurs to professionals.
“I used to be involved with the auditions but now we can get 20,000 people auditioning and I can’t eat that much cake so I wait until I see them in the tent,” he laughs. “I would rather see them fresh in the tent.”
Each episode of Bake Off ends with the contestants showing off their creative showstoppers – and Paul, who is dad to Josh, 19, takes great pleasure in destroying them all.
“I cut everything,” he chuckles. “I don’t care. I like to see them wince.
"Our job is to get in there and sometimes their flavours are in the middle.”
Paul acknowledges the fact he can be a bit like Marmite – some people love him, while others aren’t fans. But, like his recipes, he takes all comments – both positive and negative – with a pinch of salt.
“Someone once said to me they did not like the way I say ‘moist’ on Bake Off,” he recalls.
“They said it was an inappropriate word but I think it is a great word. I have made sure that I now say it in every show.”
If the shoe was on the other foot and Paul was a contestant on Bake Off, what would he make?
“My signature dish would have to be a sausage roll,” he says. “My technical would be a souffle. For me, it has to hold.
“A passionfruit souffle is one of my favourites – with white chocolate ice cream in it as well.
“And my showstopper would be a sourdough.”
Paul was born into a family of bakers in Wallasey, Merseyside and was always destined to follow in their footsteps.
He worked in his father’s bakery before becoming head baker at a number of top UK hotels, including The Dorchester and Cliveden House.
“I was born above a bakery so when I was two, they would find me stealing the doughnuts,” Paul says.
“And when my dad used to hug me, I used to have a floury hug as he was covered in flour.
“Baking reminds me of chapters
in my life. My mum always used to make me ham rolls for lunch and they were from a bakery I liked. She knew I would know the difference.
“That was the start of the Bake Off. Even today, I like a certain type of soft roll and I love iced buns, too. You feel them go straight to your belly.”
Paul rediscovered his passion for baking in lockdown and started working on his new book, Bake, during the last series of the show – which he described as being a bit like “an open prison” because it was filmed at the height of the pandemic.
Promoting Bake at the Kaufman Music Center in New York, Paul told fans: “In lockdown, I found my passion for baking again as I felt I took my eye off the ball.
“And I was happy they still wanted Bake Off as I felt the UK needed it.
“We were in lockdown for seven weeks during lockdown – it was like an open prison making the show. We became this huge
bubble. I did count every blade of grass in the field so Bake started there. It is an indulgent book for me, as it is stuff I wanted to do.”
Paul also explained how the recipes featured in Bake are healthier than some of his previous examples.
“We need to reduce the sugar in some of our cakes and reduce salt in some of the bread,” he says. “That is quite normal nowadays.”
When Paul isn’t filming or cooking up a storm at his Grade II Listed farmhouse with girlfriend Melissa Spalding, 38, he enjoys taking his fancy motors out for a spin – and hopes to get back into motor racing later this year.
“I used to race for Aston Martin but I have not raced for a couple of years,” he says. “The last race I did was in Austin, Texas, and that was for 24 hours. It was amazing.
“I’m hoping to do some racing in Dubai later this year. I do like speed… it’s the anonymity I like too, with the helmet.”
