Prue Leith praises Nigella Lawson as 'wonderful' on Bake Off — prue leith on leaving and new school cooking plan
Dame Prue Leith announced last month that she would be leaving The Great British Bake Off in January, saying: "Now feels like the right time to step back. " prue leith, who lives in Oxfordshire, said the decision was driven by other plans and by getting on a bit: "next week I'm 86. "
Reaction to Nigella's appointment
Dame Prue said Nigella Lawson will be "wonderful" as the new judge on The Great British Bake Off. She praised Lawson after news that Lawson would become only the programme's fourth permanent judge, joining mainstay Paul Hollywood for the show's 17th series later this year.
Prue Leith on successor
When asked by Radio Oxford if she had any guidance for her successor, Dame Prue said: "She doesn't need any advice from me. " She added praise for Lawson in a string of compliments: "She's so good and she will bring to it's a whole fresh look and she'll be wonderful, " and also said: "She's funny, she knows her onions and she's delightful. " The change means Nigella Lawson will replace Dame Prue on Bake Off.
How she came to the role
Dame Prue was hired for Bake Off after the series jumped from the to Channel 4 in 2016, replacing another Oxfordshire resident, Dame Mary Berry, who lives in Henley on Thames. Dame Prue said leaving the programme was difficult: "I enjoyed it so much and I would still enjoy it if I was doing it and I could probably do it for a few more years and go on enjoying it. " She also explained practical reasons for stepping back: "But the truth is I've got an awful lot of other things I want to do and I'm getting on a bit, you know, next week I'm 86. " She added plainly: "I can't go on enjoying myself eating cake all the time - I want to get on with other things. "
Leiths Education school curriculum
Leiths Education has committed to teach every primary-age child in Britain how to cook. Dame Prue's comments about stepping away from the show came as her Leiths Education cookery training service launched a new free primary school curriculum to help get children in the kitchen.
Trial results and classroom comments
She said the scheme had already been trialled in nearly 50 schools, with 82% of children involved seeing their cooking skills "improve enormously". Dame Prue argued there was a long gap in school cookery: "There's been three generations with no cookery going on in schools, or very little, so what we thought was that the answer was to have a really good curriculum, starting with four year olds and going right through primary school. " She described the response of young pupils to lessons: "In my 50 or 60 years of teaching cooking, I have never yet met a child who didn't enjoy a cookery lesson. " She added: "When they're very young they're so curious and they're imaginative and they want to try things. "
Dame Prue, who lives in Oxfordshire, framed both her decision to step back from the television role and her focus on the curriculum as parts of the same next chapter: supporting young people learning to cook while handing the Bake Off judging role to a successor she called "wonderful. "
