Latest news with #CotswoldKitchen
Wales Online
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Bake Off's Prue Leith had 'operation on her dining room table' after developing health issue
Bake Off's Prue Leith had 'operation on her dining room table' after developing health issue The Great British Bake Off judge will be returning to TV screens this morning (May 3) with Prue Leith's Cotswold Kitchen, where she will be making chocolate roulade and tarte tatin Prue Leith underwent an operation on her dining room table as a child (Image: Channel 4 ) Dame Prue Leith has candidly shared her experience with a health issue as a child that resulted in her "having an operation" on the dining room table. Prue, 85, was just six when she had developed an abscess - puss-filled lump - in her ear. Medics told Prue's mother Margaret that she would need to go to hospital. However, expectant mother Margaret was carrying Prue's younger brother James at the time. On the Rosebud podcast with Gyles Brandreth, Prue explained her mum feared the children would be split up if she was taken to hospital as James was being born. With no other choice, the doctor was convinced to perform the procedure to remove the abscess at the family home, reports Gloucestershire Live. Meanwhile Margaret gave birth to James in another room. Prue said: "I'm rather ashamed of the fact that my first memory was when I was six years old. Most people can remember when they were two or four, but I can't. Prue says her first memory is having an operation (Image: ITV ) Article continues below "But it's very clear, I was having an operation on my ear, because I had an abscess in my ear, on the kitchen table while my mother was giving birth to my younger brother. "What happened was the doctor said, 'She has to go to hospital to have this ear thing lanced or whatever'. And my mum said, 'No, I can't do that because I might have the baby on the same day and I can't be separated from my children'. "So she persuaded the doctor, in those days you could do things like this, persuade the doctor, to do the operation on our dining room table. And she had James in the bedroom." After being administered anaesthesia for the procedure, Prue recalled that upon regaining consciousness, her nanny inquired if she wanted to see her newborn, James. Instead, Prue jokingly requested a banana - a comment she now views as "quite prophetic". Prue became a judge on the Great British Bake Off in 2017, joining forces with Paul Hollywood, following Mary Berry's departure from the show. Born in South Africa, Prue embarked on her culinary journey at the prestigious Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London. Prue Leith's Cotswold Kitchen returns to screens this morning (Image: PA ) Article continues below Her career flourished as she managed a successful catering business and operated a Michelin-starred restaurant. In 1975, she established Leith's School of Food and Wine, a renowned institution offering professional chef training and cooking classes for enthusiasts. The star will return to screens tonight (May 3) with Prue Leith's Cotswold Kitchen. The programme will be on ITV One from 11.40am. In the upcoming episode, pastry chef Ravneet Gill will join Prue to create a decadent chocolate roulade and discuss her involvement with Counter Talk, an initiative focused on enhancing working conditions in kitchens. Prue will also share a unique savoury take on the classic tarte tatin.
Telegraph
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Prue Leith: People keep asking if the next Bake Off will be my last – probably because I'm so old
How do famous names spend their precious downtime? In our weekly My Saturday column, celebrities reveal their weekend virtues and vices. This week: Prue Leith 8am My husband John is naughty because he'll bring me tea and yogurt and I'll be furious because I won't be able to resist eating it. I don't usually have breakfast as it's about the only food I can resist and I have a problem keeping my weight remotely down. When I'm filming my Cotswold Kitchen series at home, I'm woken by Bambi, my makeup artist, banging on my door. 9am I choose the necklace or specs first and the outfit around that. I've got necklaces on a wall hanging up so I can see them – it's all cheap stuff, never gold. I enjoy putting my clothes together, but John buys them all. I hate shopping. 10am We've got a new potting shed and greenhouse and I'm thrilled. It's full of plants I had in childhood in South Africa, like bright bougainvillaea. I like propagating because my back hurts and I can do it on a high stool. I'm not as hands-on as I'd like because I'm no longer able to be. I find it vaguely surprising I can't do certain things any longer. 12pm We go for a jaunt. It's a pretty drive to the Vegetable Matters farm shop where, if you buy a cabbage, it's been picked that morning. For lunch, the Ebrington Arms near Chipping Campden does great steak and chips. 2pm I have a singing lesson. I can't tell you how wildly out of my comfort zone The Masked Singer was [Prue was in the latest series], but I wanted to learn to sing. The first time I had to rehearse as Pegasus, I sang without the costume and I can't say I was doing dance moves, but at least I was moving around the stage. Then, when I had the horse's head on, I couldn't move or hear the director telling me when to come in, so I just stood there looking like an idiot. I still don't know if I'm in tune, but at least I can make a noise now and I'm confident enough to try. 3pm Since Covid, I've been having a siesta. I've got my husband addicted to it too, so we're two old codgers having a nice kip in the afternoon. 5pm John loves shopping for children's toys, dangerous things like quad bikes and Segways. We have to make the grandchildren wear helmets, and they go bombing around the garden. We have 11 between us. John's youngest is nine months, the eldest is 16, nearly all boys. I'm very conscious I have an amazingly lucky, happy life. There's no reason to be unhappy. 6pm I love teaching the kids to bake cakes, like I do on Prue Leith's Cotswold Kitchen (Saturdays, 11.45am, ITV1 and ITVX). Everything happens in real time on that show, we never refilm anything – if I make a cock-up it is just, 'Oh dear, never mind, let's stick it together with cream.' Paul [Hollywood] and I are about to go through the challenges for the next series of Bake Off as well. People keep asking if it will be my last – I suppose because I'm so old so it's a reasonable question. I ask it myself. 7pm I cook everything we eat. John says he lives on leftovers, which is sort of true, because I can never throw anything away, but it wouldn't be a leftover if I didn't do some primary cooking. We'll have sausages and parsnip mash with skirlie, pinhead oatmeal fried with onions – so bad for you, full of butter – with sprout tops that look like tiny cabbages. God, they're delicious. 9pm Sometimes we have to say to each other, 'We cannot go to bed yet, it's only nine o'clock.' But it's very tempting. The fatal thing is, we don't turn the damn light out until midnight. John reads antique magazines and I read The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk. I've been at it for two months now because it's so huge.
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Prue Leith addresses 'maddening' issue with husband as she steps back from Bake Off
Prue Leith is taking a break from The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer this year, but fans can still catch the TV chef on her own ITV show, Prue Leith's Cotswold Kitchen, alongside her husband, John Playfair. Dame Prue has now addressed the ups and downs of working with retired fashion designer John, admitting to The Sun's TV Mag that the experience can be a "maddening" one. Comparing filming together to sharing their home, Prue revealed: 'It's just like living with him – sometimes he's maddening, but mostly he's lovely." READ MORE: Mark Wright 'fights tears' as breaks silence on birth of daughter with 'superhero' Michelle Keegan READ MORE: Michelle Keegan breaks silence after daughter's birth with sweet update as famous pals continue to send messages Giving John some credit, Prue said: "He's very creative – he'll often decorate a cake better than I would. And he loves the little adventures, where he learns how to lay a hedge or how apple juice is made. "The people he interviews really love it as he'll ask all sorts of questions. He's not very on-message!' Prue also hinted at why she's been replaced by her close friend and business partner Lady Caroline Waldegrave on the celebrity version of Channel 4's Bake Off, giving an insight into the gruelling filming schedule, in comparison to the more relaxed approach of her ITV series. She explained: 'When I'm off to Bake Off, I often have to get up at five in the morning, so it's lovely. And ever since Covid, I love having a sleep in the afternoon. We build an hour into the schedule, so everybody has an hour off in the middle of filming." Prue will still be appearing on the main series of Bake Off alongside fellow judge Paul Hollywood and hosts Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding, however, taking a step back from the spin-off series will allow her to have some much-needed time off. Addressing her decision in a previous interview, the 85-year-old baking expert said: "These things are filmed back-to-back all the way through summer from April to August so you don't get any time off. "I'm getting quite old and there's places I want to see. So I'm not doing this year's."
The Independent
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Bake Off's Prue Leith gives blunt verdict on Meghan Markle after Netflix show
Prue Leith has shared her honest opinion on the Duchess of Sussex's new lifestyle Netflix show. With Love, Meghan, which sees the former Suits actor invite celebrity friends to join her while flower arranging and making cocktails among other domestic duties, has been panned by critics, with viewers echoing their dissatisfaction. Bake Off judge Leith appeared on Good Morning Britain alongside her husband John Playfair to discuss their new show Cotswold Kitchen, when hosts Kate Garraway and Rob Rinder asked if she had watched Meghan's programme. 'No – I've only read about it but I honestly wouldn't watch it,' she replied. 'I'm not a Meghan Markle fan. All that touchy-feely, mindfulness, endless worrying about what creams you put on your hands.' She continued: 'I just think there's more to life than how you look and how your friends think of you,' adding, 'I've probably alienated half my fans.' Comedian Katherine Ryan recently gave a scathing review of the series, saying on her podcast, Telling Everybody Everything: 'I liked Meghan Markle. I was rooting for Meghan Markle... though she is very Hollywood – even for me – and I don't like that in people.' The comedian continued: 'She said on her new Netflix show that they ate TV dinners growing up. But then in an old interview, she was like, 'we would eat farm fresh'. Her whole act just seems very manicured and very forced.' The Independent Katie Rosseinsky gave the show a one-star review, calling it 'queasy and exhausting'. She wrote: 'With Love feels like a millennial blog come to life; it's the TV version of The Tig, the website that Meghan launched and ran in her pre-royal, jobbing actor days, filmed with all the soft-filtered gloss of a Center Parcs advert.' The Duke of Sussex makes just one appearance at the end of the final episode when he joins Meghan, her mother Doria Ragland and friends for an outdoor celebratory brunch. The Sussexes, who signed a multimillion-pound deal with Netflix in 2020, have previously put out the outspoken Harry & Meghan documentary, which features accusations against the royal family, and sport show Polo. Meghan and Harry were bestowed the Sussex title by the late Queen Elizabeth II on their wedding day in 2018. Although the couple were told they could no longer use their HRH titles after they stepped down from being working royals, they have still opted to use Sussex as their surname. The second season of With Love, Meghan is coming in the autumn, and has already finished filming, according to Netflix. She has also announced plans for a new podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, which will debut on 8 April and explore her experiences as an entrepreneur alongside other women in business.
