Prue Leith: "My husband complains that our house is a cake-free zone!"

Prue Leith has made a habit of being ahead of the curve. When she opened her Michelin-starred restaurant, Leith’s, in 1969, it was the first high-end restaurant in London owned by a woman – and it didn’t faze her one bit.

Since then, she’s helped develop a new generation of chefs with the launch of her cookery school, Leiths School of Food and Wine, become a successful writer, publishing 14 cookbooks, eight novels and a memoir - and even become a TV star.

At 82, her triumphs continue; she’s shortly returning as a judge on her sixth series of The Great British Bake Off this September, and releasing a new cookbook, Bliss On Toast.

In an exclusive interview in Good Housekeeping’s October issue, Prue opened up about still being so in demand.

“It’s extraordinary – I thought I’d be under the sod by the time I was 82!” she says.

“It’s wonderful that people still want to employ me and people are still interested in me. But what I’m most pleased about is that I still have the energy and enthusiasm to do it all.”

The secret, she revealed, is being curious. “For me, the worst words in the world are, ‘It’s so boring.’ Curiosity is the key to life,” she says.

Prue has juggled her incredible career with raising two children, Danny and Li-Da, but explained that it hasn’t always been easy.

“When I had my first child, Daniel, I took four months off and I loved it. I thought, ‘This is wonderful – I never want to go back,’” she says.

“Four months in, with my baby as my sole companion, I suddenly thought, ‘This is not the life I want to live at all. I have to go back.’ You have to do what’s right for you, but it doesn’t come without some feeling that you’ve not got it quite right because you’re making trade-offs all the time.”

Prue is also relishing being married for a second time, having recently moved to a new home in the Cotswolds with her husband of six years, John Playfair.

“The only thing we ever quarrel about is the fact that I’m rather tidy – and he isn’t! He manages to fill every surface with books and clutter,” she says.

“It’s a small price to pay, though. He also complains bitterly that he’s married to a judge of The Great British Bake Off and our house is a cake-free zone.”

When she's not being kept busy with Bake Off, Prue revealed that the pair can often be found driving around the Cotswolds on John’s Harley-Davidson.

“His children call it his mobility scooter because it has two wheels at the back, so it can’t turn over – but I love it!” she says.

“We go pub-crawling around the Cotswolds – I do the drinking because I’m on the back – and it’s the loveliest thing.”

Read the full interview with Prue Leith in the October 2022 issue of Good Housekeeping, on sale now. It is available in all supermarkets and online at MagsDirect.

The Great British Bake Off returns to Channel 4 on 13th September.