Prue Leith is best known for being a judge on The Great British Bake Off, but there’s way more to the Michelin-starred chef than just a TV show. Like that very fact: She’s also a Michelin-starred chef. Leith has also written romance novels and cooked for rock stars and British royalty. For decades, she’s been a pioneer of the sort of no-fuss, accessible type of cooking that we love.
Delish’s Editorial Director, Joanna Saltz, sat down with Leith in the Delish Kitchen Studios’ pantry to unearth even more stories from her life, plus the inspiration behind her new cookbook, Life’s Too Short to Stuff a Mushroom. Watch the full video interview above, and read the highlights from their wide-ranging conversation below.
Joanna Saltz: You were at the forefront of a casual, stress-free sort of cooking. Where did that mentality come from?
Prue Leith: I’ve never been a snob about cooking. I’ve always rather objected to the sort of precious foodie who has to have everything come from Italy. If it’s Italian, everything has to be. You know, the best olive oil for everything? Absolute nonsense. You could use good corn oil for many things and you never know the difference. I’m irritated by too much foodie foodie.
You’ve cooked for an impressive resume of clients, including the Beatles. What was that like?
What was quite fun is the Beatles arrived one day [at my restaurant], and I said, “Well, what would you like?” And they said, “We just want a fry up, really. We want breakfast.” This was a posh evening breakfast. I said, “We have a set four-course meal for a set price and it’s really expensive, so your egg and chips is going to be really expensive.” They said, “You know what, we can afford it.”
Then Ringo said, “Don’t put any chopped parsley on it.” So, I said, “Why would I put chopped parsley on a fry up sausage, bacon, eggs?” He said, “You chefs, you put green stuff on everything. I hate green stuff.”
They did eat it all, and they came back, so it must’ve been good. But they always ate the same thing, which was a fry up.
How about for Elton John?
My favorite story about Elton John is not really about Elton John. Most Saturdays we had weddings, but we also had lunch for the Queen Mother and a caveman party for Elton John. The caveman party was just a big barbecue, but all the waitresses were in leopard skin bikinis, and the waiters were in loin cloths.
So, of course, none of my my managers wanted to do the wedding because we did weddings all the time. Those were boring. They all wanted to go to Elton John or the Queen Mom. So I got stuck with the wedding, and when I got there I realized as we were unpacking, the table cloths had gone to Elton John who was on the other side of London. He, of course, did not need any tablecloths as he was having a caveman party.
We had to scramble to find anything white. White curtains, lining material, sheets. We couldn’t. The mother of the bride arrived in the tent and she panicked. I found myself saying, “Madame, honestly don’t worry, we never ever do the main table until you’re safely in the church because we want it to be a surprise.”
The minute she was out of my sight and they were off to church, I was into that house, up the stairs like a jack rabbit looking for the linen cupboard. I found the linen cupboard and in it were these absolutely beautiful linen sheets. Perfect. When she got back, she got stuck into the champagne pretty quickly.
She put her around me and she said, “You are such a wonderful caterer and you are so right. I quite see why you wanted to keep it a secret, especially as you have our monogram on the tablecloths. I didn’t say anything and I didn’t fess up. I didn’t want to ruin her day or my day.”
I have to admit I was very pretty late to The Great British Bake Off train.
So was I. When I joined it, I’d never watched it.
So when you got the call to do it, were you like, ‘What is this?’
Pretty much. But that’s because I’m not very good at watching telly. And especially hadn’t ever really watched food programs. The last thing I wanted to watch was more food because I spent all day with food.
American food-challenge television can feel less empathetic than shows in the U.K. Were you nervous about joining the U.S. spinoff of Bake Off?
When I was asked to do The Great American Bake Show, I was a bit hesitant because I had watched a few American competitions, and by in large the contestants were dissing their rivals and sabotaging them, and trying to hog the camera. So when I went onto the American baking show, I worried that we would be having the sort of contestants I’d watch in other competitions.
We always choose bakers for their baking abilities, not for anything else. They’re not there because a casting director likes them. They’re there because they’ve watched The Great British Bake Off for years. They know what the vibe is, they know how to behave, so they come in and they’re immediately friendly, and they’re quiet, and they don’t try to hog the camera. They just want to go on and bake.
Speaking of The Great British Bake Off, do you ever get lost in Paul Hollywood’s blue eyes?
No, I don’t, because I know him so well. And funnily enough, it’s really odd because those blue eyes are completely real. People often ask me, are they contact lenses? They’re completely real. And he’s very good at just being still when looking at the camera. People think he’s scary, but actually he’s squishy inside.
He’s a really kind guy. And when the camera’s not on him, you’ll often find him with an arm around some weeping baker. He’s the one who’s comforting them.
Megan Schaltegger is an NYC-based writer. She loves strong coffee, eating her way through the Manhattan food scene, and her dog, Murray. She promises not to talk about herself in third person IRL.