Nigella Lawson has issued an impassioned paean to the Greggs sausage roll, amid reports of a banger-based dust-up that threatened to cast a shadow over her appearance in the bakery chain’s first ever Christmas advert.
Greggs confirmed on Sunday that the celebrity chef and cookbook author had agreed to star in its inaugural Christmas promotion, in which Lawson will purr over such delicacies as vegan festive bakes.
It followed an anxious wait for the nation, amid reports that the commercial relationship was fraying after Lawson refused point blank to deploy her honeyed prose in support of the chain’s sausage rolls.
Greggs said the reports were “inaccurate”, adding that food writer was only ever recruited to promote the Christmas menu and had never been asked to endorse its pastry-clad bangers.
Lawson said: “As a longtime fan of Greggs, and especially their sausage rolls, I’m thrilled to be collaborating with them to celebrate the return of the iconic Christmas menu.”
The promotion will bring together two British household names known for their associations with former chancellors of the exchequer.
The TV chef is the daughter of the late former Tory chancellor Nigel Lawson, while one of his successors, George Osborne, suffered one of the most chastening moments of his political career when he dared to take on Greggs.
Osborne announced plans to apply VAT to hot baked goods in his infamous “omnishambles” budget of 2012, eventually abandoning a measure dubbed the “pasty tax” after heated opposition from Greggs and others.
The first glimpses of the Greggs advert feature Lawson, known for her indulgent dishes and sensual turn of phrase, in paroxysms over Greggs’ Christmas menu.
Lawson, whose net worth has been estimated at more than £15m, is shown returning to a home featuring a Christmas tree bedecked with Greggs baubles, before describing the “rapturous riot of flavour” of the chain’s festive bake.
She says: “Succulent filling, creamy sauce, all wrapped up in the flakiest of flaky pastries, in one or both hands, say hello to the Greggs festive bakes,” before taking a bite of one.
In the final scene, viewers are shown a kitchen table laden with items from the Greggs Christmas menu, ending with a platter of vegan festive bakes.
The festive bake costs £1.95, about 15% of the current retail price of Lawson’s 2020 cookbook, Cook, Eat, Repeat: Ingredients, Recipes, and Stories, depending on the bookshop.
Greggs’ courtship of Lawson continues a recent strategy of pairing its no-nonsense baked goods with the finer things in life.
Last month, it launched its first champagne bar in which customers can wash down steak bakes with a £75 glass of Louis Roederer Cristal.
The bar opened in Fenwick’s store in Newcastle, the city where Greggs has its headquarters, on 24 October and will remain open until the end of December.
It follows the first Greggs “fine dining” bistro at the same location last year, which served its popular festive bake alongside duck fat roasties, smoked pancetta, chestnuts and sprouts to more than 8,000 customers over a single month.
• This article was amended on 4 November 2024, An earlier version said that George Osborne had announced plans in his 2012 budget to apply VAT to “hot takeaway food”; that should have said hot baked goods.
