Why celebrity chef Ken Hom isn’t sweet on TV’s Bake Off

The Great British Bake Off has turned the likes of Paul hollywood and Prue Leith into TV icons.

But now the award-winning show has come under attack from globally renowned chef Ken hom, who accuses it of fuelling a national addiction — to sugar.

It is the single ingredient ‘which we should not be eating’, says 69-yearold hom, who was awarded the OBe for ‘services to culinary arts’ a decade ago. Speaking at the Golden Chopsticks Awards at the Marriott hotel in London’s Mayfair, hom acknowledges the popularity of the

programme and others like it. ‘People like sweets so it appeals to that,’ he tells. But that, he adds, is all the more reason to reject them.

‘Sugar is very addictive. They say it is more addictive than heroin. I don’t eat sugar. I am 70 in two days and I am not having anything sweet for my birthday. I don’t eat sweets.’

Hom, who was raised by his mother in Chicago after his father died when he was just eight months old, became an international sensation when he was chosen by the BBC to present Ken Hom’s Chinese Cookery. The book which accompanied the series sold more than 1.5 million copies, making it one of the BBC’s greatest best-sellers.

Ken, who survived prostate cancer in 2010, acknowledges that he is not one of Bake Off’s 7.5 million viewers. ‘I don’t watch cookery shows because I don’t have time,’ he explains.

Anyone thinking this is sour grapes should think again: he first voiced his warnings about sugar 15 years ago, declaring it ‘a poison — instant gratification without long-term benefits’.

Channel 4 did not comment.