7 Things TV Has Taught Me

As Junior Bake Off continues, Prue Leith, 79, chats to TV Times about what she has learnt from being a cook, novelist and TV judge…

- Caren Clark

1 JUNIOR BAKE OFF COULD CHANGE THE WORLD

‘The more that I’ve got into the politics of hospital food and school food, I’ve learnt that food makes the world go round. It’s the glue that sticks society together but it is also important politically.

‘Governments should realise that learning to eat well is every bit as important as learning to read or write.

‘If we ate well, we wouldn’t have an obesity problem, we wouldn’t have a diabetes problem, we wouldn’t have an NHS crisis.

‘When I first took the Bake Off job, I thought, “I’m going to be criticised because I’ve spent so much time saying we eat too much sugar; what am I doing being a judge on Bake Off?”

‘But it didn’t take long to remember that if everybody learnt to cook, things would be better, and when people learn to cook, the first thing they do is bake.

‘Children get into cooking through baking and that is why I’m so pleased we’re doing Junior Bake Off because children can see other kids doing it. I think it will do a lot of good.’

2 I GET SAUCEPAN

ENVY! ‘I used to think that a saucepan is just a saucepan, you don’t need the best saucepan in the world, and if your cooker works, it is fine.

‘But now I get “kit envy”. I went recently to look at some new cookery products and I just wanted it all. And if someone is wearing a really nice necklace, I just want it because I’m mad about necklaces.