After being a much-loved judge on The Great British Bake Off for the past nine years, Dame Prue Leith announced her retirement from the show at the start of the year.
Fortunately for fans of the cook and author, she’s far from putting her feet up. woman&home recently caught up with her to talk about her book, Being Old… And Learning to Love It, why she quit Bake Off, and the advice she’d give to Nigella Lawson who is replacing her on Bake Off.
In keeping with her practical nature, Prue kept her words of wisdom for Nigella to the point, sharing, "Just enjoy it".
She added, "Honestly - she will never have a nicer job. And she’s a very nice woman, so it couldn’t be better."
Considering it’s the nicest job, just why did Prue leave? In a very relatable moment, she realised she might have been done with work while on holiday.
She said, "I went on holiday to Madagascar with my husband [John Playfair] and thought, 'I want to do more of this.’ I also thought it was a good idea to go before somebody suggested I went.
"I think it’s important to leave while you’re happy and enjoying it.”
She’ll also have more opportunity to enjoy her favourite way of spending time with John - riding his motorbike.
"We’ll go for jaunts on his Harley-Davidson and stop off for a pub lunch," she explained, "I really enjoy arriving at a pub with everybody looking at us. First, they take in the bike, then they see these two old codgers getting off and look so surprised."
Despite wishing Nigella well, Prue won’t be a loyal viewer when the show returns later in the year.
Revealing she likely won’t watch, she said, "I hardly watch telly at all. And when I do, I watch travel programmes about people going to extraordinary places."
Prue might never find a nicer job but she does remember one embarrassing moment during her tenure that left her feeling like an "absolute idiot".
"At the end of my first series, I posted the name of the winner, Sophie Faldo, early because I was travelling in Bhutan and got confused about the time zones… everyone involved in the show was remarkably nice about it."
For now, Prue will keep herself busy filming her ITV series, Prue Leith's Cotswold Kitchen, which she loves as she gets to film "at home and [have] John with me."
“I love the fact everything we film is real - we don’t retake anything. So if I bring a cake out of the oven and it cracks in half, I work out how to fix it."
Would a cake by Prue ever crack, one wonders? Well, she revealed a surprising secret - she’s no baker.
"I’m not a baker. I’ve got a very good set of taste buds, so I’m a very good judge. But in a million years, I could never win Bake Off."
