Dame Prue Leith has some words of wisdom for Nigella Lawson as she prepares to join Great British Bake Off as the show’s new judge.
It was announced in January that the celebrity chef will succeed Leith for the next series of the popular baking competition.
Leith announced she would be stepping down from the post she has held for nine years, a role she took over from Dame Mary Berry in 2017, the same year the show moved over from the BBC to its new home on Channel 4.
“It’s daunting to be following in the footsteps” of both Leith and Berry, said Lawson last month.
Asked in a new interview with The Telegraph whether she has any tips for her successor, Leith replied simply: “Just enjoy it, because you’ll never have a nicer job.”
Another tip, she added, is always double check before posting anything on social media – a reference to the time that Leith prematurely tweeted about the winner of the 2017 series before it aired on TV. She had been travelling in Bhutan and got confused over the time zones.
“I felt like an absolute idiot,” Leith told The Telegraph. “It was horrible at the time, although everybody involved in the show was remarkably nice about it.”
Leith, however, will not be tuning into to watch Lawson on the show, having never watched Bake Off before she joined or during her own tenure.
“I hardly ever watch telly, and if I do it’ll be a travel programme, because my husband likes things involving people going to extraordinary places,” she said.
Lawson’s arrival to Bake Off marks her most high-profile gig in the UK in years. Recently she has focused on her TV career in Australia, where she’s been a regular guest on MasterChef and My Kitchen Rules.
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Her appointment has been praised by many fans of the series, including The Independent’s Rachel McGrath who called it an “ingenious casting for a show that’s gone a bit stale”.
Lawson, who published her first cookery book, How to Eat, in 1998, and has presented numerous BBC specials since Nigella Bites aired in 1999, is expected to bring her signature flair and cooking innuendos into the Bake Off tent next season.
The Great British Bake Off is expected to return later this year, following a celebrity edition confirmed for spring, featuring stars including Molly-Mae Hague.
