Dame Prue Leith announced her decision to leave The Great British Bake Off earlier this year, and she’s now revealed her former co-star Paul Hollywood’s verdict on the major shake-up.
Paul Hollywood, 60, and Dame Prue Leith, 86, judged The Great British Bake Off together for almost a decade, but the famous baker is now set to team up with a new face on the Channel 4 show.
Prue, who announced her decision to “step back” from the programme in January this year, appeared on Times Radio this weekend and was quizzed by host Jane Mulkerrins about what viewers should expect from her successor, Nigella Lawson, 66, and Paul.
Shedding light on Paul’s priorities for her replacement, the restaurateur and chef insisted that the star would always have more “respect” for candidates who were experts in baking, rather than their level of fame.
As a result, Prue feels that “terrific baker” Nigella is the perfect choice. She shared: “I think they’ll get along absolutely fine.
“What Paul respects is if you know your stuff, if they had hired somebody who was there just because they were famous… He would rather have a good baker nobody had ever heard of who understands what’s wrong with the cake, or why it’s as it is, and of course, Nigella is a terrific baker and has been for many years.
“She’s also really good at her job, I mean anyone who has seen her on TV knows how confident and witty… and she’s really clever, Nigella.
“People often think that she’s just… well they don’t say it, but if you say ‘Nigella Lawson’, people mostly think how beautiful she is, but she’s got a brain on her, she’s terrific. They’ll be absolutely fine.”
Jane agreed and revealed that after seeing a preview clip of Nigella and Paul on the show for the first time, it’s clear that they “have great chemistry”.
The presenter told Prue: “I had a sneak peek of what they’re going to be like together, I was at a Channel 4 preview Prue, and I have to say, they have great chemistry. So I’m looking forward to it very much.”
“They will be terrific, they will be wonderful,” Prue enthused in response.
Paul is currently fronting The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up to Cancer alongside pastry chef and Bake Off: The Professionals judge Cherish Finden.
TV chef Nigella will make her debut on the 17th series of The Great British Bake Off, which is set to air later this year.
Prue previously explained that she had decided to call time on Bake Off role due to her age and a wish to focus on other passions, including gardening.
In a recent appearance on The Shift podcast, the star confessed a fear of losing her balance on the Channel 4 set, after being asked to film in a field and having to tell producers she wasn’t up for it.
She recalled: “We weren’t judging cake – they wanted us to dance round this field. And it was a very hummocky, uneven, field, which of course Noel could really leap over brilliantly and Paul perfectly good.”
She continued: “But I suddenly realised ‘I’m going to go A over T, you know, this is going to be humiliating beyond belief’. So I said ‘I don’t want to do it’, and they understood – they were fine.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
