95 Eight pages of summer food
The Great British Bake Off winner Candice Brown has created a collection of uplifting meals and comforting treats that are guaranteed to put a smile on your face – and make your kitchen a happy place
From teacher and The Great British Bake Off star to pub landlady and columnist, North London-born Candice Brown has always found comfort and stability in her kitchen – a place to slow down and feel at ease. Having taken the keys to her pub in December 2018, Candice (and her business partner, brother Ben) has had to adapt the business to ride out the pandemic. Here, she talks exclusively to hello! about her love and admiration for her nan, mental health issues, her passion for pastry and more…
Candice, how did life change after winning Bake Off in 2016, when you were working as a secondary schoolteacher?
“Life changed more than I could have imagined. I was working in the special needs department and had been a teacher for about nine to ten years.
“I had always baked as a hobby; an outlet for stress or worry or for fun. I loved the show and thought it would be amazing to be part of it. Never did I even dream I would get on, let alone win and then be presented with some of the incredible opportunities that I have. I am able to do something I love so much and I know how lucky I am.”
You started baking when you were just four. Who or what was your inspiration?
“I used to spend a lot of time with my nan and grandad in Edmonton growing up. My nan was the apple of my eye and wherever she was I wasn’t far away. She was the most incredible cook and baker – she worked as a dinner lady too. She was always in the kitchen, making things from scratch; pies, cakes, huge Sunday roasts and I’d be there next to her. She’d give me the pastry offcuts to make jam tarts or we’d make butterfly cakes. I adored her. I think of her every day and like to think I have taken my love of cooking and baking
from her.”
Do you have a particular baking passion?
“It can be anything – whatever takes my fancy. But I love making pastry, probably because I love to eat pastry. I’d love to train properly in France. It’s such an art but so therapeutic and the most delicious thing, sweet or savoury. Maybe that can be my next challenge – boulangerie au pub.”
The first lockdown last year forced the closure of your pub, The Green Man, in Eversholt. How did you adapt the business?
“When we took the pub on we knew it would be hard work, having seen our parents do it for nearly 25 years, but we could never have expected a global pandemic and complete closure. It hit harder than we could have imagined, but we have dug deep and done everything we could to keep going.
“At one point it was just me in the kitchen cooking and my brother Ben and his girlfriend washing up and delivering takeaways. We have also been trying to get an extension built – so you could say times have been interesting.”
How did you go about deciding which of your recipes to include in Happy Cooking, which top chef Tom Kerridge has described as “a reminder of how wonderful food can be”?
“Can you believe he said that? How amazing! It is a very raw and honest book that I am both beyond proud of but also completely terrified about. I speak about my mental health battles properly for the first time and discuss how cooking has been my go-to. The recipes are an extension of this – food that makes me smile, food I need, food that is nostalgic or all-consuming on days when I don’t know what to do with myself.
“I hope this book will be even a small help to those who may need it, in times when things can be really tough and mental health affects so many of us.”
‘I speak about my mental health battles properly for the first time’