A Prue lease of life

Bake Off judge talks about career revival

BY ELLA WALKER PRUE Leith had barely written a recipe in 25 years. For more than two decades, the culinary mind of the woman who set up the prestigious Leiths Cookery School and London restaurant of the same name lay pretty much dormant. Then she appeared on the BBC’s long-running Great British Menu show and replaced Mary Berry on the Great British Bake Off,

dry remark. However, her (accidental) catchphrase – “Is it worth the calories?” – might be one of her abiding principles but it wasn’t meant to become her slogan. She said: “I always judge things by, ‘I don’t care how many calories it’s got, it’s so delicious I’m going to eat it,’ or, ‘It’s a special occasion, it’s worth the calories’. I won’t eat something high in calories and not particularly wonderful because that’s just not worth it. You feel guilty after.” Talking of guilt and food, Prue admits she’ll occasionally diet “because I get too fat”. But that “diet” – more of a rebalancing, really – consists of “laying off the booze and too much food”, while the deep-seated association of guilt with food, she said, is “really dangerous”.

Prue added: “All this worry about clean gut and stuff just makes people nervous about what’s going in their mouths.

“It’s a boring thing to say but it’s the absolute truth, the answer to a healthy lifestyle is moderation. Even people who run millions of miles, they’re the ones in old age who are so crippled with arthritis they can barely move. Too much exercise is as bad as no exercise and too much food is as bad as no food.”

There have been developments around eating and cooking over the past few decades that she does find encouraging, though. Prue said: “There’s much more interest in food now because of television mostly. “One wants them to move from watching the telly to actually doing it.” She believes TV is beginning to prod people to pick up a frying pan but is adamant there needs to be more focus on learning cookery skills at school, and more support for people who aren’t adept in the kitchen. Prue said: “Life has got tougher for people on a real tight budget, so people who have never learnt to cook and their mothers didn’t cook, who have basically grown up on junk food, it’s difficult for them to change unless someone will give them a hand because, if you can’t cook, you’re not going to risk your benefit money on something the children won’t eat because they’ve never seen it before.” Endlessly practical and committed, Prue is a patron of the Chefs In Schools charity, who aim to get professional chefs into school classrooms. She said: “I have never managed to put my feet up, ever. I’m having a little revival here in my old age, a kind of renaissance. It’s all very exciting.” Prue: My All-time Favourite Recipes by Prue Leith, photography by David Loftus, is published by Bluebird, priced £25. Available now. Pencil skirt £29.99 @ www.zara.com Pleated skirt £39.50 @ www. marksandspencer.com Wrap skirt @ www.mango.com

I’m not much of a cake maker. There wasn’t cake in the house like there was in my grandmother’s