5 MINUTES WITH...

Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, 33 – who explores her family’s roots in a new travelogue (and cooks yum food along the way…)

This is your first time travelling without your family?

For sure! When I did the trip to Bangladesh for The Chronicles Of Nadiya [a 2016 BBC series], I was going to see my family, and my parents were over there, so that felt easy compared to this! I don’t think a Google search is ever going to really prepare you for what’s out there. It’s so different from what anyone tells you, and you don’t realise there is a massive world out there! How was it being on your own (albeit with a camera crew…)? It was hard! I didn’t have that comfort of going to bed at night knowing my kids and loved ones are nearby [Nadiya has two sons and a daughter with her husband Abdal], but they were so excited about me doing this, and I was away from home a little under five weeks. When they sit and watch it, they will understand why I did it and why it was important to me. It was a journey of discovery. You did some cooking while you were over there [although Nadiya’s pad Thai didn’t go down very well with the locals]… They sprinkle sugar over everything! Sugar in my pad Thai? I don’t think so, that is just not happening. I get that it’s authentic, but I don’t even have sugar in my tea. Will your family holidays get more adventurous now? My kids love travelling and trying out different foods. Thailand, Cambodia and Nepal are definitely next on our list of things to do as a family. The air in Nepal is like nothing I have ever breathed in my life. I can’t allow my kids to live a life without feeling that. I want them to go out there into the world; I never want to put the barriers that I had in front of them.