The Great British Bake Off – Prue Leith

How would you sum up this year in the tent?

It’s been really good fun this year. It’s been too hot – well, first of all it was too cold, and then it was too hot – but I actually love the heat. I’m the only one who doesn’t complain about it. 

That’s maybe going back to your South African roots?

Well, exactly. I don’t know what they’re all complaining about. It’s lovely! But that standard of baking – and I’m sure Paul will say the same thing – has been fantastic. But better than that, the 12 of them were just such lovely people, and so funny, and so different. This year, we had a couple of engineers and architects, which is really helpful with something like the showstopper, the ability to think about how things are constructed. And we had a couple of people whose professions are quite artistic – we had a hairdresser and a wedding stylist, and somebody who’s an amateur artist, so they were artistic and imaginative. I thought they were a really interesting group. 

And, by all accounts, they all absolutely loved each other as well.

Yes, that always happens. I think it’s the tent. There’s something about it. Paul says the tent changes people. I suppose they’re all Bake Off fans, otherwise they wouldn’t apply, so they already know how to play it. They know it’s a kindly show. When they asked me to do American Bake Off – the American Baking Show – my first instinct was “Oh, I don’t want to do that. I’ve seen so many American competition shows where they all sabotage each other, or elbowing each other out of the way so they can get their face on the camera. They’re so brutal!” I suppose it’s because there’s normally lots of money at stake. But on Bake Off, and on the American version, they’re competing for a cake stand, and so it attracts a different type of contestant. If you’ve been watching Bake Off, and you love the show, you want to be part of that friendly environment. They’re almost indoctrinated before they come in. 

That kindness and warmth is really key to the show. It offers a safe space to viewers in what can be a fairly divided world. Are you conscious of that when you’re making the show?

No. I think when we’re doing it, we’re just having fun. We all like each other. I shouldn’t say this, because they’ll cut my pay in half, but it’s such a piece of cake to do. It’s so easy. All I have to do is walk on, eat cake, walk off and get paid. What could be easier or nicer? And so it’s not an effort. Even at 5 o’clock in the morning, you don’t feel “Oh, I’ve got to go to work.” It’s not at all stressful. So I don’t think I’m conscious, at all, when we’re doing it, that we have to keep this show nice because it’s somebody’s stress-free zone, it’s somebody’s therapy, it’s somebody’s quiet time when they can be with their family. It is all of those things, and I’m very glad it’s all of those things, but when we’re actually doing it, we’re just having a good time. 

Do you ever learn stuff from the bakers?

Absolutely I learn stuff! Before I started doing Bake Off, I’d never used yuzu or matcha. I’m a good cook, but I’m not a particularly good baker. But I’ve got a bloody good set of tastebuds, that’s what I’m hired for. I can tell when things are right and when they’re wrong. But I’m not necessarily someone who would train them on how to do it better. But I have learned quite a lot from Paul. Especially on bread. Pastry is more like cooking – if you’re just a general cook, you have to be able to bake biscuits and cake. But bread you can skip altogether, and buy it in from a good baker. 

There’s a new week – Back to School. To me, that would involve slabs of stodgy sponge served with lumpy custard.

That’s what it was! Except they weren’t stodgy! Paul got terribly excited, because his favourite thing in the whole world is cake and custard, and we had lots of cake and custard. In fact, for one of the challenges, I think we actually required custard. It’s funny, because I was at school in South Africa, and you would have thought that would have been very different, but because the whole education system had come from Britain, our school was just like any private school in England. So we had treacle tart and brownies and school cake – not very well-made, but we had the same things. 

What were your favourite weeks in this series?

My favourite week is always bread week, and the reason is, it’s not as sweet. I’m a cook at heart, not a baker, so I like that. My least favourite is probably chocolate week. I’m not mad about chocolate. I like a good chocolate cake, but I don’t know that I’d ever think of making one. If I was making a cake at home, I’d never make a chocolate cake. I would make a lemon polenta cake or a lemon drizzle cake or even a Victoria Sandwich, but not a chocolate cake. The only kind of chocolate cake I like is a very rich chocolate torte that’s practically solid chocolate. Chocolate cake that’s made with just cocoa powder just isn’t worth it. 

As you’ve mentioned, it was extremely hot during filming. Did that create problems?

Yes. It always causes problems. We had a sort of glacée meringue challenge, where they had to make a meringue cake with ice cream in it, and that was quite difficult in the heat. They had to make the ice cream, get it frozen enough, get it inside the meringue cake so that you could cut it. That was very difficult. 

They’re long days of filming in the heat. Are you exhausted by the end?

Not really. I think it must be exhausting for Noel and Alison, because they have to look after the bakers all the time, and keep up their energy, and keep them chirpy and cheerful. They have to mother them, if you like. We just go in there, set the challenge, go off, I write a bit, or have a snooze or something, and then turn up to do the judging. While I’ve been on Bake Off I’ve written three cookbooks, two novels, countless articles, all because I have hours to spare. And I learned to sing last year.

You learned to sing?

Yes, I had singing lessons on Zoom, because I was going to go on The Masked Singer. And I couldn’t sing a note. I still can’t sing, but at least they taught me how to breathe and how to get my voice out, project it. The fact that it was flat as a pancake was neither here nor there. But I took six months to do that, and a lot of that time was in my Winnebago. 

There must have been some unusual noises coming out of there?

Well, Paul and I share a Winnebago. There’s his room, then there’s his bathroom, then there’s my bathroom, then there’s my room. So I reckoned, with two bathrooms between us, he probably can’t hear a thing. But one day he asked me: “What is that caterwauling going on in there?” He could hear it all!

Does it get more emotionally tricky sending people home the longer a series goes on?

Yes, because you get fond of the people. You very quickly bond with them, because you’re seeing them working so hard and trying so hard, and they so want it. And as you get deeper into it, you get to know them all better. It’s really hard, because you sort of want them all to win. And this year, we ended up with four who were absolutely outstanding. The semi-final was really difficult, because we had four really fantastic bakers, and you didn’t want any of them to go. And then, of course, you have the final. But as soon as the winner’s announced, everyone is pleased. Even the bakers who have lost – they always know. The bakers know exactly what they’ve done right and wrong. I’ve never known anyone come and say “That’s not fair.” They always agree. And when we criticise their bakes, often before we’ve even said it, they’ll pre-empt us and say “I know what I’ve done.” 

While you’ve been on Bake Off, you’ve become something of a style icon…

I know, it’s ridiculous!

Did that come as a surprise to you?

Yes, a huge surprise. It’s ridiculous, the whole idea. What happened was that I met John Playfair about 15 years ago, and we’ve been married about 12 years. And he used to be a fashion designer, and he encouraged me to be more colourful. I always liked colour, but I just used to have a red jacket, or bright trousers or something. And he kept pushing me to wear more colour. And then it was Bake Off that gave me the profile, because I hadn’t really been on telly before that. And the other thing that happened was there’s a design team called Vin and Omi, Omi is Korean, and I met him on a train. We were sitting opposite each other, and we started talking, and we ended up such fast friends after an hour on the train that we ended up ringing up our partners and all having dinner together that night – they took us to the pub. 

Where all the best things happen!

Absolutely. And we’ve become really good friends, so he got me to walk in one of his fashion shows. That was hilarious, because John always says I’ve got a walk like a sailor. Models walk with their hips forward, they’ve got this very special walk. I can’t do that, I just stride along in my usual manner. And they have a fashion business that has a partnership with the King, it’s all about sustainability, their whole business is to improve fashion’s terrible reputation for using too much water and using plastics and so on. So the first time I walked in, I wore a dress that was made out of willow bark, a linen-like substance, and the willow bark had come from the Sandringham estate. The next one I wore was a latex sheath, sort of like bondage gear. It had a slit down the side which was laced with red, so it did look like bondage gear. And I was made up to look like a witch, really. And that was from a jungle in Malaysia, which is managed to be sustainable. And then the last one I did, my fabric was made out of milk cartons from the Castle of Mey’s visitors’ centre. So that’s been huge fun. And then, of course, that gets a lot of fashion press. And I’m a trader at heart – my whole life has been in business, and I love business. 

A Love Production for Channel 4