Latest news with #PrueLeith
Wales Online
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Prue Leith says 'I honestly don't know' as she shares Bake Off filming update
Prue Leith says 'I honestly don't know' as she shares Bake Off filming update Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith has admitted that she doesn't know if she will be returning for the next series of the beloved Channel 4 show Dame Prue took over from Mary Berry on GBBO in 2017 (Image: undefined via Getty Images ) Dame Prue Leith has offered a frank insight into her tenure on Channel 4's much-loved programme, the Great British Bake Off. Renowned for her culinary prowess through appearances on numerous cooking shows and authoring several books, Dame Prue has cemented her reputation as a distinguished figure in the culinary industry. Best known for her involvement in the Great British Bake Off since joining in 2017 after Dame Mary Berry stepped away, the accomplished 85-year-old chef is approaching her eighth year on the show. As such, there has been ongoing speculation about the length of her stay as a judge beside Paul Hollywood. Dame Prue is joined by Paul Hollywood, Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond on the show (Image: undefined via Getty Images ) As fans eagerly await the Great British Bake Off's return to television shortly, Dame Prue has shed light on whether this series might be her last. Speaking with My Weekly magazine, she revealed: "Will this be my last Bake Off? I honestly don't know." Expanding on her thoughts about her future on GBBO, she expressed her desire to leave on her own terms: "We often don't get a new contract until we're actually filming a new series." Article continues below She added: "When I stop doing it, I want to jump rather than be pushed. I know I'll have to stop some time, but right now, I'm very happy." She shared what her future on the show looks like (Image: undefined via Getty Images ) Dame Prue's recent remarks about the programme came shortly after her notable absence from the celebrity version of the show, which concluded in April with Good Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway triumphing over her rivals. Concern grew amongst fans when Dame Prue wasn't seen on the April episodes, stirring fears she might be stepping down from the show. However, the renowned baker made it clear that her absence was limited to this year's celebrity series, stating: "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." She studied at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in her 20s (Image: undefined via Getty Images ) Article continues below Before becoming a household name on television, Dame Prue had already built an impressive career in the culinary arts. At the age of 20, she embarked on her gastronomic journey at the esteemed Cordon Bleu Cookery School in France. Finishing her studies, she did not waste time to launch Leith's, her very own eatery, in Notting Hill, London. After steering the restaurant to a Michelin-star status during its more than a quarter-century tenure, she decided to say goodbye to Leith's in 1995.
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Sewing Bee judge to become Queen Margaret University chancellor
Great British Sewing Bee judge Patrick Grant is to become the next chancellor of Edinburgh's Queen Margaret designer will be installed in his new role at the first of the university's graduations at the Usher Hall on 7 chancellor is the ceremonial head of the university, presiding over graduation ceremonies and performing an ambassadorial up in Edinburgh, Grant has developed an international reputation as a champion of UK textile manufacturing, supporting local communities while producing high-quality, long-lasting garments. Having been educated in both Edinburgh and Barnard Castle, he went on to study a degree in materials science and engineering at the University of Leeds, followed later by an MBA from the University of Woodburn, chairwoman of the Court of Queen Margaret University, said: "Patrick's career and achievements resonate strongly with the university's strong social justice ethos, and with our commitment to building strong communities and acting as a force for good."Past chancellors at the university have included celebrity chef Prue Leith and Sir Tom Farmer, who died earlier this month.
The Guardian
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
How will you remember your loved ones? With the nationwide Celebration Day – or by shouting at squirrels?
It's 'Celebration Day' on bank holiday Monday and it's making me feel a bit … funny. Dreamed up in 2022, this 'civilian Remembrance Day', or British Día de los Muertos, is intended 'to honour those we have loved and lost, as well as those whose lives have inspired us', according to the website. Perfectly laudable, but something about the idea of being urged to celebrate our dead by Stephen Fry and Prue Leith, to buy a star-shaped badge in WH Smith and share memories on social media with the hashtag #shareyourstar makes me feel cringey. When I get an instinctive negative reaction to something (except maggots and Nigel Farage), I wonder if I'm being unreasonable. So, am I? Well, yes – no one is forcing me to join in or buy a badge (though they benefit really good charities, including Mind, Hospice UK and the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity). Plus, Mel Giedroyc is involved, and she can do no wrong in my eyes. On top of this, could Celebration Day be meeting a real need? We're not great, as a culture, with death and grief, though I think we've improved somewhat: from grief podcasts to death cafes and a flowering of extraordinary memoirs, we've found more spaces and ways to articulate and respond to bereavement, at least the fresh and seismic kind. But that's just the tip of the griefberg. I'm not sure we've processed all those pandemic deaths very well, for a start. Our desire to move on and not look back is particularly painful for those who lost their beloveds without any of the usual – vital – ritual and communion, and for those whose grieving felt frustrated, freighted with anger or distorted by trauma. Other types of grief defy easy categorisation and response, too: how about grief that feels disproportionate to the closeness of your relationship? When you were peripheral to someone's life, but their loss hits you hard, your grief can feel overblown, even intrusive. When the death of two less than intimate friends blind-sided her last year, the writer Daisy Buchanan described her 'disenfranchised grief'. Then there are deaths you 'should' have got over by now: prolonged grief is even considered a pathology in the United States. I know I'm not alone in feeling vaguely embarrassed mentioning my dead mum, imagining people thinking, 'Is she still going on about that?' So might a Celebration Day help? Anything that normalises talking about death more, or that shushes the inner voices that tell us our feelings are wrong, our grief is too intense, too prolonged, too mixed with other feelings or misplaced, is good news. Plus, grief of all kinds is notoriously not fun; indeed, it's conspicuously lacking in the kir royale and bunting department. Why not, indeed, pick a moment to celebrate? But we already do, without Prue Leith's prompting. The lovely online gallery Projecting Grief, which explores creative responses to bereavement, features some sublimely celebratory stuff, from Marianne, who used lipsticks her mum (who 'always had her face on') left behind to make explosively colourful photographs and sculptures, to Suchandrika, who created a standup show around her long-dead parents. Asking around, I discover a group of friends who organised a dance in honour of one of their number who died last year, sharing a memory of her every time they danced with a new partner. Then there's the family who throw outrageous pudding parties in memory of their sweet-toothed nonna. 'At some point we have to use her catchphrase, 'More cream, dear?'' A friend orders his late father's favourite rum baba whenever he sees it on a menu; another eats her gran's 'Alice Jones Memorial Ice-Cream' walking the seafront at Criccieth. There's a lovely specificity to these and I think that's partly what puts me off Celebration Day: it feels too generic for our special dead people. We miss them – from partners to piano teachers, however long they've been gone and however ambivalent our experience of their lives or their dying – for who they were. That's how we should celebrate them, whether that means getting a tattoo, shouting at a squirrel or pottering down the allotment. If the spirit moves you to celebrate on Monday, wonderful. But if it doesn't, no one needs a hashtag to celebrate the dead, how and whenever they like. Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Voices: From celebrity-spotting to fuscia hangings – my first visit to the Chelsea Flower Show was a hit
THE CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW 2025 Men in flowered suits jostled for room to display their petals Among women in their gilts and brightly coloured plumage. Piers Morgan, dogless, was on his way to the dog garden as if to find a dog, And Prue Leith was not cooking today, but might have roasted later Beneath the fledgeling sun as the hours stoked its lazy blaze Over the quiver trees on Press Day. Claire Austin and Adam Frost were circled by press, Their passage impeded by their known faces, The long-lens camera carriers tripping over each other As celebrities multiplied among the many hundreds of thousands Of nerines, peonies, irises, roses, lilies And waxy-looking African flowers. I thought of marzipan and fondant And wanted to reach out and eat whole blossoms From the blanket-mass of clematis blooms, the protea mountain With internal fountain, and the fuscia hangings Of pink and purple danglings. My plant-lover's joy at this floral heaven Before the King and Queen's arrival and despite missing Joanna Lumley, Had been polished with all the anticipation of a forty-year wait And I wanted to celebrate, But the champagne bar did not open till seven.
Wales Online
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
GBBO's Prue Leith's 'horrific' experience 'put her off TV' for years
GBBO's Prue Leith's 'horrific' experience 'put her off TV' for years Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith has admitted there was one particular experience that put her off working in television for years before she changed her mind Prue Leith has said one experience put her off TV work for years Prue Leith has confessed that a past experience deterred her from pursuing a career in television for many years. Despite being a household name today, there was a period when Great British Bake Off judge Prue, 85, shied away from TV work following a unpleasant stint. Speaking to Candis, she revealed that her time presenting a show for Tyne Tees, aimed at women at home, left her with no desire to return to full-time television work, except for occasional appearances, reports Bristol Live. Prue elaborated: "I had hated television ever since my horrific appearance at Tyne Tees. I was presenting an afternoon show aimed at women at home. "With no previous presenting experience, it would be fair to say I wasn't a natural. I was very bad at it and didn't enjoy it at all. "I think it died a death. That experience put me off so I didn't do any more telly for years. I was occasionally asked to do the odd thing and chose not to accept." Article continues below "I limited my TV appearances to a couple of guest appearances in documentaries during the 1980s on topics that interested me." Prue Leith is now a staple of cooking TV However, Prue's perspective on television work reportedly shifted in the early 2000s following the death of her husband Rayne. In the wake of this personal tragedy, she joined the presenting team on the Great British Menu, a role which Prue admitted she "loved" and remained in for over a decade. Reflecting on her television resurgence, Prue has expressed surprise at her popularity across the pond. She shared: "I've been visiting New York and LA in the last two years to do my own show. "If I walked through Chelsea in New York, I'm stopped all the time because they get a double dose of the series, both US and the UK original versions. I get asked if I am that lady from the baking show." Prue has been a mainstay on Bake Off since 2017, but it was recently announced that she would not be participating in the celebrity edition of the programme, choosing instead to spend more time with her husband John Playfair, whom she married in 2016, and discussing how travel has changed for her. Article continues below Prue Leith and John Playfair Speaking on The Travel Diaries podcast, Prue said: "I haven't got much longer. I'm 85 and I want to spend as much time as I can with him. "If we are filming abroad, or like next week, we're going to New York, because I've got to publicise the American baking show, then I'm now old enough for my agent to say 'I'm sorry, but she has to ring her husband, because she's 85, she needs someone to carry the bags'."
