Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Hollywood calling for Prue
Bake Off star signs for US show
PRUE Leith is joining Paul Hollywood on the US version of The Great British Bake Off, turning her into a TV star stateside aged 82.
The veteran cook, who has proved a firm favourite on the UK version since 2017, will film the six-part series, plus a celebrity special later this year.
The show has not aired in the US since before the pandemic, with the last episode shown in January 2020.
Now it is moving stations from ABC to streaming service The Roku Channel. Prue will be replacing former judge, chef Sherry Yard, 58.
The news comes as a surprise after Prue had recently indicated she was planning to slow down a bit, spending more time in the garden and with her grandchildren, plus travelling with her husband John Playfair.
She has previously said that Americans find the show very quaint. “All their competition shows are aggressive and competitors diss each other and try to get ahead,” Prue explained.
“They can’t understand that Bake Off, or The Baking Show, has no prize apart from winning.”
The US series – called The Great American Baking Show – has always been filmed in the UK in the iconic tent. Paul , 56, has appeared in several US versions of the show including with co-judge Marcela Valladolid, 43 – with whom he had an affair – and the pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini, 47.
His former co-judge on Bake Off, Mary Berry, also appeared alongside Paul for two runs on the US version.
A spokeswoman for Love Productions, which makes the show for the American audience, said it will be sticking with the same format.
EXCLUSIVE SANJEETA BAINS
Pavlovas, cheesecakes, steam puddings, tarts, sponges, you name it, it was baked – all in a bid to find a pudding truly fit for our magnificent Queen. Some 5,000 people took up the challenge to make the perfect pud to mark celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee. And tonight the final five will be whittled down until a winner is crowned on TV. But how do you choose?
“It was very much like auditioning cakes – rather than the bakers,” says royal grocer Fortnum & Mason’s executive chef Roger Pizey, one of those who had to pick a shortlist.
“We were just looking at the recipes first – and judging on that. From that, we took it down to about 150. Then we looked at pictures, and then we narrowed it down to about 50 to 60. And then on from there. It was a mammoth undertaking and honour.”
He admits he came across a varied and, at times, weird range of cakes, which will have a starring spot at the Big Jubilee Lunch.
These included smashed avocado tarts, ginsoaked bakes, swede cakes, and the Queen’s face in icing.
Roger says: “I saw plenty of gin cakes, cakes within cakes and dubonnet and gin – complicated ones which ran to about seven or eight pages long. I was very surprised by the number of fine dining entries we received.
“Some of these creations would have been fabulous served at a restaurant but not something you’d present at the Jubilee Lunch.
“It was very important that the recipes were what anyone can do at home – with no fancy equipment.” He says: “The winning baker will be making history here. This will never again happen in
ROSE FALOODA CAKE our lifetime. This pudding could be alongside coronation chicken and Victoria sponge as a historical dish enjoyed for years to come.” Victoria sponge, right, was named in Queen Victoria’s honour following Prince Albert’s death in the 1861.
And, in 1953, Poulet Reine Elizabeth, above, otherwise known as coronation chicken, was created for the royal banquet to celebrate her majesty’s crowning glory.
It was created at the famous Cordon Bleu cookery school but the recipe has changed dramatically over the years. Angela Wood, who was then a 19-year-old student, was asked to help perfect the recipe.
She says: “The coronation chicken we made for Her Majesty was nothing like the coronation chicken you get today and it does not have sultanas and things in it!”
Her original recipe included only mayonnaise, apricots (or pureed tinned apricots),
LEMON SWISS ROLL AMARETTI TRIFLE an intense mix of sauteed onions, bay leaves, red wine, tomato puree and curry paste, cream and, of course, roast chicken.
For the Platinum Jubilee, bakers aged eight to 108 – from Glasgow to Lancashire, York, Derby and Nottingham – submitted recipes with pictures and stories behind their inspirations.
Buckingham Palace head chef Mark Flanagan stepped in to help pick the final five before handing over to a judging panel.
This consisted of Dame Mary Berry, 2018 Great British Bake Off champion Rahul Mandal, Masterchef: The Professionals judge Monica Galetti, writer Jane Dunn, pastry chef Matt Adlard and culinary historian and author Regula Ysewijn. Dame Mary and the Duchess of Cornwal will announce the winner during a special BBC One programme, The Jubilee Pudding 70 Years In The Baking, tonight.
Roger says there was no fighting over pudding as the
competition was a battle of
PASSION FRUIT THYME FRANGIPANE
baking brilliance right from the very start. He says: “Some of the entries were so very, very close to making the final.”
One of these bakers was Valerie, 73, from London, who impressed Roger with her pudding entry - which she baked for her street party for the Queen’s Coronation when she was 14 - made with elderflower and strawberry mousse with shortbread at the base and white chocolate around the edge.
He says: “On the recipe alone, I knew it would be a great pudding, but when I read the story behind I thought wow that was just amazing. Having someone who baked a cake for the coronation and now baking for the Platinum Jubilee - and the exact same cake.”
Valerie says: “When I first baked the cake for the coronation – it was for a street party – well, actu- ally, it was a car park party. Back then, we didn’t have cream – we
couldn’t afford it, so we used condensed milk, which worked just as well.
“My friend first read about the competition in the newspaper and just told me I had to do it.”
Roger says even he learnt a few tips and tricks from the wartime culinary ways used in many of the entries – a nod to the rationing at the time.
“The recipes that amazed me were the ones that were passed down by generations. A family recipe to help celebrate the ultimate family matriarch – the Queen.”
But it is not just the story behind each entry that counts.
After all the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The judges tonight are looking for exceptional taste,goodpresentation,amemorablestoryand something that could be easily recreated in kitchens across the country.
Below Roger gives us his exclusive take on each of the cakes that have made it through to the final... sanjeeta.bains@mirror.co.uk
@Sanjeetabains