Bake Off’s Paul has Dame Prue down to a cup of tea

PAUL HOLLYWOOD reckons the damehood that fellow Bake Off judge Prue Leith received last year has gone to her head. So much so, junior staff on the show are now apparently given lessons on how to make the perfect cup of tea for the 82-year-old.

‘Prue is so precious about her tea on Bake Off,’ the 56-yearold master baker told the audience at Kaufmann Concert Hall in New York, where he was promoting his book, Bake.

‘We take the runners to show them how to make tea. You can’t squeeze the bag against the tea cup as she knows. She is a dame now, so you can’t do that to her.’

Hollywood was also less than gallant about former Bake Off judge and fellow dame Mary Berry, 87. Speaking about the origins of baking, he said: ‘When you look back on history like Pompeii . . . Mary Berry used to have a bakery there.’ Miaow!