Nadiya is brilliant at cooking and I can’t even boil an egg... it did make me think I need to be a better woman
DJ ZOE ON HER NEW SHOW WITH BAKE OFF STAR
Put her in front of a camera or a studio microphone and Zoe Ball will have the perfect recipe to make the moment sizzle – but drop her in a kitchen and she admits her souffle will fall flatter than a pancake.
Which at first makes her a surprising choice to co-present the BBC’s latest culinary extravaganza, The Big Family Cooking Showdown.
But for viewers, contestants, and Zoe especially, it is the second ingredient in the presenting mix that will give the show its unique flavour – 2015 Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussein.
Zoe says: “The BBC rang me up and went, ‘Would you like to work with Nadiya?’ And I was like, ‘Yes!’ – I didn’t even really ask what the show was.
“My friends were more excited about me working with Nadiya than when I interviewed Tom Cruise or David Beckham. I just wanted to be her friend.
“That makes me sound like a demented stalker…”
Stalker or not, it has proved to be the beginning of a close friendship. As they chatter on set – a spacious barn deep in the Kent countryside – mum-of-two Zoe is already planning a sleepover for Nadiya, 32, and her three children at her house in Brighton.
“You know how brilliant Nadiya is at cooking?” asks 46-year-old Zoe.
“I’m completely the polar opposite – I can barely boil an egg.
“So she’s going to come and stay and we’re going to wear pyjamas and she’s going to teach me a basic curry and chilli paneer – that’s my favourite dish.”
When it comes to chemistry, Zoe and Nadiya can certainly compete with The Great British Bake Off ’s original hosts, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins.
Former 90s ladette Zoe says she felt especially daunted when Nadiya revealed she pre-cooks all her family’s meals whenever she will be away.
“I did think, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to be a better woman’,” she says.
The show, which starts next Tuesday, has three family members combining their skills and knowledge to turn out a meal – headto-head against other families.
Over the course of 12 shows, the 16 families will be whittled down to one winning trio.
The eldest contestant is a Swedish gran of 86, while the youngest is just 15. They are judged by the formidable Rosemary Shrager, 66 – perhaps best known for her Noughties TV role on Ladette to Lady – and Italian Michelin-starred chef Giorgio Locatelli, 54.
Making the show has proved surprisingly moving for Zoe.
“I am dangerously hormonal,” she says. “I’ve got quite emotional. What makes me cry? When things go well, or when you see… relationships.”
One family is a mother, originally from Syria, and two daughters. “I found their relationship quite magical and moving,” says Zoe, who has a son Woody, 17 and daughter Nelly, seven, with her ex, DJ Fatboy Slim.
“And some of the younger cooks are so impressive. There was one lass who was like, ‘This is the best day of my life’. That set me off.”
Zoe, who presents Strictly spin off It Takes Two on BBC2, has some idea of the pressure after coming ninth on the dance contest in 2005, with Ian Waite.
But she says she could not imagine taking part in a cookery contest with her dad Johnny, 79, a former children’s TV presenter. “It would be absolute carnage,” she laughs.
For co-presenter Nadiya – who baked a cake for the Queen’s 90th birthday –
the roles are the reverse. She is nervous about presenting, but says her strength is knowing exactly what contestants are going through.
“I was behind one of these workbenches,” she says. “When they say, ‘Can you do a three-tiered cheesecake in three hours?’… I know that dread.”
Nadiya, who has sons Musa, 11, Dawud 10, and daughter Maryam, seven, with husband Abdal, says she overcomes her presenting nerves by recalling her childhood games, when she played at being a TV cook. “I used to pretend to my brothers and sisters and they’d get fed up,” she says.
“So I’d have teddy bears and pillows – I’d draw faces on pillows, and then pretend to cook.
“Now when I’m a bit nervous I just pretend everyone’s a teddy or a pillow.”
While the show starts in the same month as Channel 4’s Bake Off, the pair refuse to see it as a rival. Zoe is pals with Bake Off hosts Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig and a fan of judge Prue Leith, who joins Paul Hollywood.
“I’ll be watching Noel and Sandi because I absolutely love them,” Zoe says. “And Prue Leith – my brother always says she wrote the best cookbook ever. There’s room for all of us.”
“Absolutely,” adds Nadiya. “We’re not Bake Off because it’s not baking, it’s all cooking. There’s different dynamics, it’s three people – and it’s in a barn.”
Zoe adds: “Obviously comparisons will be made because two women are hosting. But we’re never going to be as funny as Mel and Sue.
“We have different humour – mostly unbroadcastable.” Nadiya is particularly thrilled that none of the families in the series have gone for the fad for “clean” eating, involving cutting out major food groups.
She says: “There’s too much emphasis on what we shouldn’t eat. There’s nothing wrong with a fish finger.
“Would I give my children fish fingers seven days a week? Absolutely not. But it’s about having a healthy attitude to food, that’s more important than what you put on the plate. What’s wrong with having a bit of chocolate cake? Chocolate cake is good for you, it makes you happy.”
Judge Rosemary, meanwhile, says the “surprisingly high” standard of cooking on the show means she piled on the pounds.
She had dropped three dress sizes – on a diet based on prunes – after being told she was morbidly obese while making Indian documentary The Real Marigold Hotel.
But she says: “I put it back on again, it’s a bit of a nightmare. But, you know, it’s been worth it.”
So how does she feel about being seen as “the new Mary Berry”? Rosemary laughs. “I’d never fill Mary’s shoes – I think she’s a terrific person.”
It looks like Zoe once again has a top recipe on this one – all sweetness and spice, and not a hint of bitterness.
The Big Family Cooking Showdown, BBC2, 8pm, Tuesday August 15