‘I want to lose weight and still eat cake’
Once ‘Bake Off’ is finished, Paul Hollywood is going motor racing. Here, he tells India Sturgis how he plans to get in shape
Master of Dough, King of Bread, the silverhaired Prince of Pastry, otherwise known as Paul Hollywood, is in full flow. He is in raptures recounting the moment he bit into an empanada during a recent trip to Madrid while filming his Food Network TV series,
City Bakes, the final episode of which airs on Monday. This was no typical empanada; the pastry had been made with lard, from an Iberian pig.
“It melted into this rich flavour,” he says, his ‘‘posh Scouse’’ accent thick and firm. “It flaked like nothing else. Inside they had this beautiful steak filling. Ahhh…” He breaks off, as if to savour the memory. His head is back, his eyes lolling. It feels like a private moment.
It is for this that we watch Hollywood. There are few people who can convey the ecstasy of cakes and pastries to such full effect. Those bearlike knuckles, the electric-blue eyes and gravity-defying quiff… the man responsible for what his female fans have dubbed “patisserie porn” is a sensory explosion. I suspect he knows it, but he bats away the suggestion of admirers, saying: “I am a 50-year-old fat northern bloke. Give me a break.”
But as a third-generation baker with three decades of experience, including head baker roles at The Dorchester and The Chester Grosvenor, six cookery books, a bakeware range and a principle judging spot on The Great
British Bake-Off – the most-watched TV show of 2015, with more than 15 million viewers – as well as talking the talk, he has certainly proved he can bake the bread.
Midway through our meeting at his publisher’s office in central London – his new book The Weekend Baker, a culinary journey through 10 cities, from Copenhagen to Miami, is published next week, with recipe pull-outs available with the Saturday and Sunday editions of The Telegraph this weekend – Mary Berry texts him for advice on a loaf she is baking.
Does he ever ask her for advice? He guffaws. “We do the same thing. So, no, not really. We stay in touch. If I am in the area, I’ll call her up and pop around for a cup of tea.”
Tea but no biscuit. Right now, he is trying to lose a stone and a half to get in shape to race for the Buckinghamshirebased Beechdean Motorcar team this summer; because, as well as cakes, Hollywood is fanatical about cars. He drives an Aston Martin Vanquish soft- top, and has just received an international racing licence. Once recording of the next season of Bake Off is completed, he intends to compete at Oulton Park, Donington, and in a 24-hour race in Dubai. But to comfortably fit in low-slung supercars for many hours requires trimming and toning. So far, he has lost 9lb through shadow boxing and weight lifting three times a week, and drinking three litres of water every day. It must be working, because his usually doughy sides look remarkably trim in jeans and a polo shirt. “My body shape is beginning to change. I am very topheavy anyway, but I’d like to shave a bit of belly off. I have a little bit of muscle memory from 30 years of baking, so it is not too bad.”
For a man who is happiest with his face wrapped around a Chelsea bun, it is unsurprising that dieting is out of the question. “I don’t believe in diets,” he says. “They don’t necessarily work. What they do is scrub your weight down but as soon as you finish, you naturally go back up. I keep everything in my diet – gluten and sugar – I just cut it down a little bit and train more. It’s not rocket science.”
Born on the Wirral, he was raised in Merseyside and trained as a sculptor at Wallasey School of Art until his father coaxed him into the family firm. Even now, he says, that “sort of tactile feeling of whatever you are doing is still very much in my DNA”. It is a trait that has led him into hot water. Three years ago, a fling with 37-year-old TV chef Marcela Valladolid, his co-host on the US
Bake Off spin-off, almost ruined 15 years of marriage to Alexandra, 51, also a chef. He moved out of the family home in Kent they shared with their son, Joshua, then 11.
Hollywood said later: “It was the biggest mistake of my life because I still love my wife.” But today, the topic is off the table. Fiercely protective of his family, he is determined not to cause them further upset or undue media attention.
Talk turns instead to George Osborne’s soon-to-be introduced sugar tax on drinks. Hollywood is well aware that today’s children and teens consume three times the recommended level of sugar but he thinks ready meals, as well as fizzy pop, are a part of the problem.
“The sugar tax is fine, I agree with it,” he says, picking his words carefully. “But I think it probably doesn’t go too far. But then I work on
The Great British Bake Off. We make cakes with sugar and butter. I can’t be too critical. It is like anything in life: it is all about moderation.”
If in doubt, he says, just follow his failsafe dieting tactic: when handed a slice of Victoria sponge, look at it, cut it in half – and only eat that bit.
“You’ve just halved your calories,” he laughs.
The Weekend Baker by Paul Hollywood is published by Penguin (£20). To order your copy for £13.99 plus p&p, call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk