Great British Bake Off judge to visit Torbay

Great British Bake Off judge, Dame Prue Leith, will visit Torbay this spring to talk about her career as one of the UK's most respected culinary voices.

Prue will share stories about her impressive lifetime career and new cookery book, ‘Life’s too short to stuff a Mushroom’, at 7.30pm on Wednesday, March 19, at the Palace Theatre in Paignton.

Prue has been at the top of the British food scene for nearly sixty years and has seen huge success.

She is the founder of the renowned Leith's School of Food and Wine and proprietor of the Michelin-starred Leith's Restaurant and has built her career as a caterer, teacher, TV cook, food journalist, novelist, and cookery book author. 

She has also been a leading figure in campaigns to improve food in schools, hospitals, and homes. 

Perhaps best known as a judge on The Great British Bake Off and The Great American Baking Show, she also has her own ITV program, Prue's Cotswold Kitchen, and has been a judge on The Great British Menu and My Kitchen Rules.

Last year she presented a gardening programme, Prue’s Great Garden Plot, with her husband, and this year will judge the American equivalent of Bake Off.

Prue was born in South Africa, which she visits regularly to check up on the Prue Leith Culinary Institute, the country's top chef school. 

She is married to retired fashion designer John Playfair, and between them they have 11 grandchildren.

Prue has been a board director of companies such as British Rail, Halifax, Safeway, Whitbread, Woolworths, and Belmond (ex-Orient Express) Hotels, and has published eight novels, a memoir, I’ll Do Anything Once (formerly, Relish), and 14 cookbooks.

Her latest cookbook, Bliss on Toast, was published by Bloomsbury in 2022.

She chaired the first of the companies charged with turning around failing state schools and was Chair of the School Food Trust, responsible for the improvement of school food and food education. 

Above: Image: Ant Duncan

She started and led the campaign for contemporary sculpture to be exhibited on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. 

She has been active in many charities and is the Chancellor of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, and was also an advisor for the government’s Hospital Food Review.

Among her awards, she has a DBE, 12 honorary degrees or fellowships from UK universities, the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year, and her restaurant, Leith’s, won a Michelin star.

The evening will feature a Q&A session and a book signing.

Tickets are on sale now at https://www.palacetheatrepaignton.co.uk/shows/an-audience-with-dame-prue-leith/.