Prue Leith: “Memories are made out of Christmas disasters!”
For the Bake Off judge, the funniest festive season was the one when the lunch went completely wrong.
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For the Bake Off judge, the funniest festive season was the one when the lunch went completely wrong.
“My greatest Christmas memory was a few years ago when I had the entire family coming to me – about 20 or so people!” laughs Prue Leith.
“I bought two big legs of pork because everybody likes pork and delicious crackling.
“So, I thought I’d slow cook them and put them on a very low heat at about 7.30am. You don’t need to baste pork because of the fat on the top, so I didn’t go near the oven until 1pm when I reckoned it would be tender and beautiful. I opened the oven to discover it was stone cold, and the meat was raw.”
She explains that her young nephew had come down in the morning and made himself a fry-up for breakfast and “being a very well-trained young man” had cleaned up after himself and turned off all the switches on the oven – something he’s never been allowed to forget since!
“We’d all had a few drinks by then so found it hilariously funny,” Prue continues.
“My brother and I sliced up one of the raw pork legs and fried it in a pan and it was absolutely disgusting, but it didn’t matter as there was lots of gravy and vegetables, so nobody went hungry.”
The Cordon Bleu-trained chef and Great British Bake Off judge says this goes to show that you can have a good time whatever disasters happen in the kitchen.
“People get very stressed about Christmas and everything being perfect, but you still have a fun time and you have a great tale to tell when things go wrong.”
One of her favourite festive seasons, meanwhile, was last year when she took her family – including husband John Playfair, son Danny, daughter Li-Da and her five grandchildren – to Val d’Isère in the French Alps on holiday.
“It was a magical, snowy setting and wonderful watching the children learn to ski,” she says.
“It’s good to do something different at Christmas now and then.”
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This year she will be back in the UK and is happily handing the mantle of hosting to her son and his wife, though she will make a Christmas cake as she loves to do that: “it’ll have lots of booze in it and be covered in marzipan and Royal icing”.
Come what may, the day will involve one of the grandchildren handing out presents wearing a fez hat that once belonged to Prue’s first husband – her family’s unique festive tradition.
“When my first husband was young, he went to Morocco and bought a fez and, for some reason that I can’t remember, he wore it when handing out gifts,” she explains.
“It then got put away with the rest of the decorations and has come out every year since. It must be about 70 years old or more now and is a really tatty old thing, but it wouldn’t be Christmas without the fez!”
As for Prue’s personal wishes for Christmas and the New Year? “I’m 85 now so staying alive is my number-one wish,” she jokes.
“I don’t need any more stuff, so the most precious gift is time with my son and daughter – I hope they’ll both take me out for the odd supper so that we can chat. That’s my favourite thing of all – time spent talking and listening to them.”
Hero image credit: Ant Duncan
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