Prue Leith
Prue Leith is a cook, author and broadcaster, known for nine series judging The Great British Bake Off and for sharing recipes, kitchen shortcuts and life at home in Cotswold Kitchen.
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Prue’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus their backstory and Starbook, where fans write.
Known for
- The Great British Bake Off2017–2025 · Judge
Channel 4 - Prue Leith’s Cotswold Kitchen2024 onwards · Presenter
ITV - Being Old...and learning to love it!2026 · Author and audiobook narrator
Short Books - Life’s Too Short to Stuff a Mushroom2024 · Cookbook author
Carnival - BloomsburyBliss on Toast2022 · Cookbook author
Overview
- Born
- 18 February 1940, Cape Town, South Africa
- Work
- Cook, restaurateur, broadcaster, cookery writer and novelist
- Early business
- Built Leith’s Good Food from a catering business begun in the 1960s
- Restaurant
- Opened Leith’s in 1969; it went on to earn a Michelin star
- Cookery school
- Founded Leiths School of Food and Wine with Caroline Waldegrave in 1975
- Bake Off years
- 2017 to 2025, followed by a departure announcement in January 2026
Mini bio
How it started.
Born in Cape Town, Prue moved to London in 1960 to study at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School. A business supplying lunches grew into Leith’s Good Food, followed by her restaurant, Leith’s, in 1969. The restaurant earned a Michelin star, giving her a reputation long before the television tent.
Passing it on.
In 1975, Prue and Caroline Waldegrave founded Leiths School of Food and Wine. Teaching people to cook from scratch became a lasting part of her work. She also chaired the School Food Trust and helped campaign for better school food.
A familiar face.
After years judging Great British Menu, Prue joined The Great British Bake Off in 2017, replacing Mary Berry. Nine series made her familiar to a new audience. She announced her departure in January 2026, while continuing to share food and home life through Cotswold Kitchen.
Always writing.
Food runs through her fiction as well as her cookbooks. On her website, Prue explains that Anthony Trollope helped inspire her to write novels, and that cooks, chefs and restaurateurs keep turning up in her stories. Her 2026 book Being Old turns to the pleasures and difficulties of later life.
Creditschronological, newest first
Television
- 2024 onwardsPrue Leith’s Cotswold KitchenPresenter
- 2017–2025The Great British Bake OffJudge
- Until 2016Great British MenuJudge
Books
- 2026Being Old...and learning to love it!Author and audiobook narrator
- 2024Life’s Too Short to Stuff a MushroomAuthor
- 2022Bliss on ToastAuthor
Food and education
- 1975Leiths School of Food and WineCo-founder with Caroline Waldegrave
- 1969Leith’s restaurantFounder
Awards
Quotes
It seems I can’t stay away from food.Prue Leith, official Books page
On the cooks, chefs and restaurateurs who populate her novels. Source: https://prue-leith.com/books/
Trivia
- Anthony Trollope’s novels helped spark her ambition to write fiction.
- Her novels The Food of Love, The Prodigal Daughter and The Lost Son form a trilogy about two families in the Cotswolds.
- As chair of the RSA, she led the campaign to put changing works of art on Trafalgar Square’s empty Fourth Plinth.
- She served as Chancellor of Queen Margaret University from 2017 to 2024.
Find Prue
Follow Prue for recipes, books and glimpses of life in the Cotswolds.
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