Life

Prue Leith: Food and love are the perfect ingredients for a romantic novel

Ahead of her appearance at this month’s Belfast Book Festival, Jenny Lee chats to Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith about the personal inspiration behind her latest romantic novel, being teased by Paul Hollywood and the importance of family meals

Chef-cum-author Prue Leith will be in Belfast this month as part of the city's book festival
Chef-cum-author Prue Leith will be in Belfast this month as part of the city's book festival Chef-cum-author Prue Leith will be in Belfast this month as part of the city's book festival

GOAT’S cheese and beetroot risotto and a mushroom, garlic, spinach and ripe avocado ciabatta are just two of the dishes featured in Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith’s latest book. But no, it’s not a cookery book, it’s her latest novel.

Born in South Africa, Leith studied cookery in Paris and London before setting up her own business and event catering company. In 1969 she opened Leith's, her Michelin-starred restaurant in Notting Hill, and in 1975 she founded Leith's School of Food and Wine, training chefs including Lorraine Pascale.

Concurrently, Leith became a successful food columnist, broadcaster and cookery book writer. But despite her success, she still had a burning desire to write fiction.

"At university I wrote a play and I'm always writing bits of poetry. I generally took Fridays off to write my columns, but I realised that if I went on running a business, I would never ever write the book that was going around in my head.

"So I finally decided after doing this catering malarkey for 25 years I could just sell the business and then have enough money to sit on my bottom and write. So that’s what I did for the next 20 years, writing eight of them,” says Leith who before replacing Mary Berry as a judge on The Great British Bake Off in 2017, was best known to TV audiences for her role on the BBC’s Great British Menu for 11 years.

The Great British Bake Off's Noel Fielding, Sandi Toksvig, Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood
The Great British Bake Off's Noel Fielding, Sandi Toksvig, Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood The Great British Bake Off's Noel Fielding, Sandi Toksvig, Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood

Her latest work of fiction completes a trilogy that charts the lives of two families in the Cotswolds. The epic family drama, which has been optioned for a television adaptation, traces the lives of the Angelotti family through love, loss and the restaurant industry.

Naturally, it is full of food and business – two of Leith’s favourite things.

“I find it really difficult to steer away from food, but it’s what I know,” says 79-year-old Leith, who explains that the three books show how food and society have changed in the 80 years since the Second World War.

"When the first book of the trilogy starts it is wartime and there is rationing. Then there is austerity and gradually the Italian prisoners of war who have came over here started to influence what we eat and spaghetti was suddenly something that didn't grow on trees.

"I don’t remember the war but I do remember postwar rationing, the grime and grey of austerity London, and the abysmal food on offer in restaurants and cafes. It was a great setting for a powerful love affair.

"Then you have the whole idea Mediterranean food. When I first came to England people thought olive oil was something you put in your ears and they would have held their noses if you said the word garlic. And in the latest book, I bring in the concept of convenience food and organic farming," adds Leith, a keen gardener herself.

In terms of themes, The Angelotti Chronicles explore the emancipation of women after the war, women making their way in a man's world in the 1960s and 70s and adoption.

"The easiest of the books to write was probably the middle one, The Prodigal Daughter, because Angelica, like me, was a student in Paris in the 60s, fell in love with French food, worked in the London restaurant scene in the 70s, moved to the Cotswolds and ends up on telly. It was quite autobiographical," adds Leith, who is adamant she will never write a trilogy again.

"Each novel is entirely self-contained – you don't need to buy all three – but for me it is important they match up. So I had to keep track of how old everyone was what colour their hair was as they age. I had timelines, family trees and files on everyone’s eye colour, hair, height and style."

In her final instalment, The Lost Son, readers see the return of Tom, who was given up for adoption during the war, and whose reappearance digs up old secrets and threatens the stability of the family and the restaurant empire that has taken 50 years to build.

Leith admits she borrowed elements of the adoption story from the life of her husband, retired clothes designer John Playfair's experience of postwar adoption and his search for his birth parents when he was in his 50s.

She is no stranger to the theme of adoption, having lent her support to a Barnardo's campaign to encourage others to consider adopting. She and her late first huband Rayne Kruger adopted their Cambodian daughter Li-Da at the age of 16 months, after she was orphaned by the Khmer Rouge. And just weeks ago she welcomed a little grandson, whom her daughter adopted.

"I was very lucky, it was a private adoption. Li-Da was in Paris by the time I had heard about her. The man who was going to adopt her couldn't because his wife had died and he told the authorities that he thought I was right person... When I think my daughter has spent four years trying to get her baby, it's all so bureaucratic now."

In The Lost Son, Leith accentuates the importance of sitting down and eating homemade meals together – something she believes is being lost in today's busy world.

"You can always tell a good meal as you can practically taste the love and the care. Food can help shape lives and change lives and everything happens over the dining table – the drama, the quarrels and the love.

"I feel we are fighting a losing battle because every generation is eating less and less meals together and cooking has dropped out of family life. People buy everything, ready meals, and just microwave it. It is a tragedy because we lose lots more than just nutrition if we don't cook and eat together. How do you discuss on your worries or pass on your family traditions, ethics or principles if you never talk to your children?"

While showing no sign of retiring, she admits that writing the trilogy has taken it's toll and rather than another novel, she is considering writing a short-story collection next, as well as another cookery collection.

She is also currently filming the next series of The Great British Bake Off. And have presenters Noel and Sandi or fellow judge Paul Hollywood read her novels?

"I know they've all read my autobiography, Relish, and Paul teases me all the time because he pretends that I write pornography, which of course I don't," laughs Leith, who is looking forward to doing some sightseeing and checking out the culinary scene in Belfast when she takes part in the Belfast Book Festival later this month.

:: Prue Leith will be reading from The Lost Son and be in conversation with BBC Radio Ulster’s Kerry McLean at Belfast’s Crescent Arts Centre on June 12 as part of the Belfast Book Festival. For full programme and tickets visit belfastbookfestival.com