Dame Prue Leith, who replaced Mary Berry on The Great British Bake Off in 2017, wanted to eat fish and chips at “what used to be a good pub” but struggled to find it on the menu
Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith blasted a restaurant after a waiter’s “lectures” between courses dashed her hopes of a romantic dinner.
The veteran broadcaster, who became a judge on The Great British Bake Off in 2017 to replace Mary Berry, slammed restaurants with increasingly complicated menus following her visit to an establishment with her husband. The star recalled she hoped to have an “intimate (I hoped romantic) dinner” but the waiter “gave us a lecture on every course”.
And so Prue, 85, conceded there was “no chance” of an intimate meal with her partner. The Cordon Bleu-trained chef wrote: “‘The night before we got married, my husband-to-be and I went to a Michelin-starred restaurant for an intimate (I hoped romantic) dinner.
“No chance of that. The waiter gave us a lecture on every course; we were handed a map of the location of the restaurant’s suppliers and expected to read it… And at the end the chef emerged for praise and foodie talk and wouldn’t go away.”
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Writing in The Oldie magazine, Prue also said she visited another restaurant – what she described as “what used to be a good pub” – in the hope to have fish and chips. However, the mum of two was unable to find this on the menu at first – until she examined the document more carefully.
Prue, who was born in South Africa and moved to London in 1960, wrote: “I ordered ‘Sustainability-certified North Sea halibut loin, coated in tempura-style batter made from Hook Norton Ironstone lager and Billy’s free-range organic eggs. Served with ‘locally grown Maris Piper potatoes, triple-fried in Cotswold Gold corn oil’ Translation: fish and chips.”
And the presenter, who used to be on The Great British Menu, said her experience reflects how she believes eateries are “pandering to foodies”. She said: “Pandering to foodies, menu-devisers now write essays on every course.
“‘Hand-dived Scottish king scallops, daily-picked marsh samphire from the Solway Firth, Arran Victory organic new potatoes’ and on and on.”
The celebrity chef is also a prolific cookbook writer, columnist and author, publishing cookbooks and novels. She has enjoyed a 50-year television career which includes judging BBC’s Great British Menu, on which she worked for 10 years.