Prue Leith on her live tour, dating and the joy of toast

Dame Prue Leith is one busy lady. As well as balancing her Great British Bake Off judging duties, she's also rereleasing a new edition of her autobiography, heading off on a live tour in 2023 and releasing a brand new cookbook Bliss on Toast, a collection of 75 recipes for things on toast. But, why toast?

"I think the older I get, the simpler I want everything to be," Prue tells us from her home in Oxfordshire. "The best cookbooks at the moment are coming up from people who have got an absolute vision, you know, it's about Syrian cooking, or Turkish or Lebanese and it's a definite style. And I'm none of those things. I'm much more old-fashioned, I just like food to taste great. So I just thought it was time to come back to something really basic. There's not a huge philosophy behind it other than fresh food, prepared with a great deal of care and attention, and eating with friends. It's so simple."

There are two driving forces behind the book, according to Prue. One, that almost anything tastes better on toast and two, that she cannot bear food waste. "It's crazy, that 40 per cent of the food goes in the bin, that's a horrific statistic. We could save an absolute fortune if we just stopped throwing things away and didn't buy too much."

Does Prue think cooking has got too overcomplicated? "No, I don't think so," she says thoughtfully. "The world is full of wonderful keen cooks. And you know, it's just fantastic to see those dishes and they all influence us. I mean, you think of all the terrific books that Ottolenghi brings out, they all shift us towards a bit more spice, a bit more vegetables, a bit more pulses and a bit less meat. I think I think there's certainly a place for all of that. It's just that I think there's also a place for something simple and easy."

And Bliss of Toast is certainly simply while being cost-efficient too, with many of the recipes coming to £1.10 per portion. "A lot of it is sort of family supper, things based on scrambled eggs or poached eggs or cheese on toast, those sorts of staples, but usually jazzed up a little in some way or other," she explains. They're also perfect for dinner parties, in Prue's opinion. "I think that dinner parties are on their way out, they're quite stressful to do and it's wonderful once in a blue moon. But I just think giving people something really delicious on toast for one course, which is nutritious, looks delicious, is fun and is quite easy to assemble. You can even get the guests to assemble it, you just make the bits."

Prue's current favourite - although she admits it changes a lot - is the Seared Scallops, "which is really just a Caesar salad with warm scallops on top. If you think of a Caesar salad, it usually has fried croutons on it. So I'm just putting the fried bread underneath, in one big slab instead of a handful of croutons." Sounds good to us!

Along with her newest cookbook, there’s also the revised edition of her biography, I'll Try Anything Once which now includes more on her exciting role as a judge on Great British Bake Off and how she met, fell in love with and married her second husband John Playfair.

The couple met when Prue was in her 70s. "Young people think by the time you're 70 that you can't fall in love and that you're sort of past all that. Absolute nonsense. It feels exactly the same as when you're 17. You spend a lot of time looking at your phone thinking, 'Can I phone him?' Or 'Can I text him? How can I text him that doesn't actually say what I want to say, which is where are you, I want you here!'" Prue smiles.

And it's John we have to thank for her incredible vibrant wardrobe along with Prue's famous glasses and necklaces. Remembering one of their first dates, she tells us: "I usually wear quite bright colours and I knew that John had been a fashion designer and so I thought, 'Oh god, he won't think much of my clothes.' So I made a huge effort and I had on a really good camel coat, a white silk shirt and gold necklaces. Very grown up and very cool, very sophisticated and smart. And he said, 'What are you wearing? I can't believe it, when I first met you, you were wearing this great orange jumper.' And he's encouraged me ever since. My son says I've only become really colourful since I met John and I suppose he's right."

The couple moved in together in 2020, although the tabloid speculation around their living arrangements is untrue, Prue confirms.

"We did spend our first five years together in separate houses and the press always make out that this was because we couldn't bear to live together but that's not so. It was really because if you've got to our age, you have a house full of stuff. I mean he had a five-bedroom house, I had a nine-bedroom house and they were all full of my children's junk and he was exactly the same.

"So we just kept putting it off because he only lived a mile away and so it suited me perfectly because I didn't have to cook for him or do his laundry or anything."

Things have certainly worked out for the best as while Prue cooks for John a lot, he does the laundry and the ironing. "He even cleans my shoes!" she adds.

2023 will see Prue head off on her very first live tour, Prue Leith: Nothing In Moderation.

"I've always enjoyed doing talks at literary festivals. I'll generally tell funny stories about the catering disasters in my life, of which there are many or feeding the Royals or the struggles of writing novels. And really, all I'm doing is something quite similar," she explains.

"We've done four tryouts, two in Bath and two in Leamington Spa. The first one I hated because I was so nervous, and my heart was banging like anything. I couldn't understand it because I'm never normally very nervous and I thought 'What am I doing? I'm absolutely crazy. And I'm committed to doing this all around England and all around America! I've made a huge mistake.' But by the fourth one, I was absolutely loving it. And I thought 'Why didn't I do this before?' It's huge fun."

If there's one thing you can expect from the tour, it's a lot of laughing. "I'm not a stand-up comic, but I can tell a good story. There's a lot of laughing and there's a little bit of serious stuff, I can't help getting on my high horse a little bit about school food or hospital food, or dying. I campaign for Dignity in Dying as I think we ought to be able to leave this life when we've had enough of it. So there's a bit of serious stuff, which I think people quite like."

With so much going on in her life, how does Prue keep motivated? "I have a lot of energy and I'm pretty optimistic. I generally think things can be done. Why not? I'd rather go for something than not."

I do like a little sleep in the afternoon these days. I started doing it in lockdown and now I really miss it if I don't have a kip, even if it's just for half an hour." Us too Prue, us too.

Image credits: Geoff Pugh, Channel 4

Food image credit: Haarala Hamilton

Prue Leith's books