Dame Prue Leith: ‘I won't say we were rolling drunk, but we were definitely tight’

Dame Prue Leith is talking to me about ‘bitches’. She is talking about female dogs, of course, but it still cracks me up. It is funny, I think, because she is old. This is by her own definition; her new book, Being Old and Learning to Love it, was published in Prue’s 86th year and instantly became a Sunday Times bestseller. ‘I'm so sick of people banging on about how terrible it is to be old. There are lots of old people having a really good time, and I’m certainly one of them,’ she tells me, taking a sip of her coffee, chomping down on a shortbread biscuit and looking entirely at home in the swanky room we are meeting in at The Chesterfield Mayfair.

It is her no-nonsense approach and trademark quick wit that made the South African and British chef a star in 2017 when, aged 77, she joined The Great British Bake Off as a judge alongside Paul Hollywood. Before accepting the job, she rang up her predecessor and friend Mary Berry for advice on working with the most steely-eyed of bakers. ‘She said, “Paul absolutely knows what he’s all about, and his judgment is always spot on… the only problem we’re going to have is that you’re not really necessary. Paul could do the whole thing on his own — so just make sure you get your word in”.’ She certainly did.

Her husband (who introduces himself as Prue’s bag carrier) is her biggest fan. He is also her personal stylist — she is married to the retired clothes designer and businessman John Playfair. When I first meet John he takes a card for their show, Prue Leith’s Cotswold Kitchen, from his breast pocket, beaming. He seems to be absolutely infatuated with her, as we all are.

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National Treasure status, however, has not made Prue a shrinking violet. She's been very outspoken throughout her career. In particular, Prue has been an advocate for assisted dying. An opinion not shared by her son, the Reform MP Danny Kruger. ‘Neither of us find it a problem. I mean, we disagree about quite a lot of things. He’s very Christian, and I am an atheist, so that’s a big difference,’ she explains.

The key to her youthfulness, I think, is how much she continues to do. ‘I love being busy. I love doing different things. I love doing things I’ve never done before,’ Prue says. Case in point, Prue made her singing debut on The Masked Singer last year, she will be speaking at Wasing Estate’s Well Read festival next month and is continuing to film Prue Leith’s Cotswold Kitchen with John.

The guest on the show that has surprised her the most so far has been the American actress Blake Lively. The unlikely friends met when Prue was filming The Great American Baking Show and Blakes’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, was filming Deadpool. ‘I had said to her, if you’re ever in the Cotswolds, come. I’d love you to be on Cotswold Kitchen. Blow me down, six months later she rings up and says: “Guess what? I’m in the Cotswolds and I’ve got tomorrow free. I can come if you like”.’

Despite being a very young kind of ‘old’, Prue admits that in between hobnobbing with Hollywood stars and countless new projects she does ‘love a sleep in the afternoon’. With any job she takes, a one-hour ‘nap break’ (booked in after lunch) is pre-agreed. ‘It’s one of the great privileges of old age,’ she says.

Your aesthetic hero

It has to be my husband, because he’s been so inspiring. I always liked colour, but I wasn’t as brave as I am now, but he always will push me. I often say, ‘Is this too much?’ and he will say, ‘It’s not enough — bigger earrings!’ Also, I hate shopping, and he loves it, so he buys all my clothes — so he’s definitely my hero.

An exhibition that has really impressed you

Recently, we went to the opening of the Lucian Freud exhibition at the London Portrait Gallery, and it’s amazing. I mean, if you think about it, most of us have an image of Lucian Freud’s work, and it’s generally the rather horrific pictures of naked old ladies in my head. I had the idea that he was more interested in ugly than beautiful. Actually, the drawing is just so exquisite, and masses and masses of his drawings and pictures are not of naked old ladies. They're just so characterful and wonderful, I love that.

A book you’ve found inspiring

I have found lots of books very inspiring over my life, but I'm very keen on Shakespeare, because my mother was a Shakespearean actress. The only play I know pretty well backwards is Hamlet, because I was in it when I was about 12. So the book that recently inspired me was written by the actress Dame Harriet Walter. It is called She Speaks and it is brilliant. It’s all about Shakespeare’s women.

The last thing of note that you bought for yourself

I just bought myself a new kitten. This is in response to John who, for my birthday, gave me a Maine coon kitten who I absolutely adore. She’s called Sophie, short for Sophisticat, but she's really lonely. She tries to get the old dogs (we've got two old cavalier spaniels — bitches) but they're really old, and they just think she's such a pain in the neck. She wants to play all the time and they don't want her to play so she needs a companion, so I’ve just bought her half brother. He will be called Aristocat. I’ve always had the most contentious names for my cats.

The music that you work to

I am so non-musical. I mean, I enjoy music, but it never occurs to me to turn anything on. I have never worked with any noise at all. I got myself talked into going on The Masked Singer recently. It came about because when they rang me up and said, ‘We want you to do this,’ I said, ‘Don't be silly. I can't sing a note, I’m tone deaf and I never listen to music.’ They said, ‘Well, we can teach you.’ So I agreed, and then I discovered that their budget for teaching non-singers to sing was never going to get anywhere near me, so I ended up having to hire a private voice coach, and you know what, it worked. I mean, I don't say I was in tune, but at least I could belt it out.

The last podcast you listened to

Well, I don't listen to podcasts very much, mostly because I am very busy. I used to be really addicted to The Rest is Politics, and I still do listen occasionally. I know it's the top rating, but it is for a good reason. I mean, those two are so good, both excellent, and they don't agree with each other all the time, which is lovely.

Your favourite painting

The Royal Academy held a David Hockney exhibition a few years ago, and it was all those East Yorkshire landscapes, which I love. So any one of them. But, the one I particularly remember is The Road Across the Wolds. It’s almost like a children's illustration. Lovely little squares of fields of beautiful colours. I love David Hockney because he draws so beautifully, but they're really accessible. What's not to like?

A possession that you’d never sell

It's a funny thing to say this, because it's so unlike me, but I have one really beautiful gold necklace, which I never wear, because I just wear brightly coloured necklaces. Once in a blue moon I wear it. I bought it in a jewellery shop with a girlfriend just after my first husband died. I was really so miserable, and she said, ‘Come on, we need to do something to cheer you up. I've got a plan.’ So, we went to a gallery where they were giving away free Champagne and vodka jellies. I won't say we were rolling drunk, but we were definitely tight, and whereupon she said, ‘Let's go and look at the jeweler.’ I ended up buying this really beautiful necklace. It is the thing I'd never part with, because, in a way, it was symbolic. It was the first time when I was so unhappy that I was laughing and doing irresponsible things like buying a necklace I couldn't afford.

What you’d take to a desert island

I think I would take the complete works of Shakespeare, because I haven't read them all, and it takes time to read them, because the language is quite old fashioned to us. It bears studying, and I never had time to do that.

The thing that gets you up in the morning

Well, if I don't have anything else to do, I do wake up thinking: ‘What shall I cook?’ I cook for pleasure and for relaxation, if I'm happy and if I'm unhappy. There's not a day that goes by that I don't cook something. I tend to get up quite enthusiastically anyway, because there's usually 100 things I want to do. And, of course, I'm bossy and organised. If there's nothing much to do, I will have a go at the garage or sort out something people need sorting. Classic sorter.

The items you collect

I suppose necklaces. I have a necklace wall in my bedroom. John designed it. They’re trees made of metal, about 5ft high and 4ft across.

The person that would play you in a film of your life

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, definitely. She has a bit of Fleabag-ness about her. I always see her as that sort of slightly anarchic, chaotic, not quite together character. I'd be very happy if she could play me.

A hotel you could go back and back to

The Hotel Chelsea in New York, because it's got a lovely bohemian air, and it’s rather like belonging to the Chelsea Arts Club here — not a hotel — but it's got a rather old-fashioned bohemian atmosphere full of old people thinking too much.

The most memorable meal you’ve ever eaten

I once went to El Bulli, which was a Spanish Costa Blanca restaurant overlooking the sea. It was really famous because the chef, who was a guy called Ferran Adrià, was in the forefront of the nouvelle cuisine movement. He was into making these tiny little mouthfuls of food, which is not really the way I like to eat at all, but because I'm interested in food, and I was a restaurateur at the time, and he was the restaurant that every restaurateur wanted to go to, I went.

I had realised that if I went with my then husband, he would absolutely hate it, because it would be one of those restaurants where the waiters keep coming along with another little tiny mouthful and telling you where it came from and who grew the raspberries and what kind of beef it was. It's too much information, and you can't have a proper conversation. The trick was to take my daughter, who's very interested in food, and our head chef. So that was the party, and so we were perfectly happy having foodie talk the whole way through. There were something like 40 little mouthfuls, and every one of them was in some way astonishing and amazing, either because it fizzed in your mouth, or the combination was so extraordinary. He was into making sure that you got the maximum sensory explosion. It was once in a lifetime.

The best present you’ve ever received

I had been badgering my parents since I was six for a pony, and obviously was never going to get one one. I used to be sent off to stay on a farm, mainly to learn Afrikaans, because the farming community were often Afrikaners. I went because I wanted to ride, not because I wanted to learn Afrikaans. There was a pony there that had an accident and had learned to favour one foot, still completely ridable, but it made the pony unsellable, so they gave my parents this horse. I said, ‘You can't refuse because it costs nothing.’ Of course, it doesn't cost nothing, once you've got a horse, you've got to buy a saddle and bridle etc. But that was the best present. He was called Laddie and I had him until I went to university.

Prue and Lotte met for coffee and biscuits at The Chesterfield Mayfair. For more information and to book a stay see here. Prue will be speaking at the Well Read festival at Wasing Estate next month. For more information and tickets see here.