Nigella Lawson is bringing her signature allure and culinary experience to The Nice British Bake Off! The beloved TV chef has been introduced as the brand new choose for the seventeenth sequence, taking on for Prue Leith, who stepped down after 9 seasons to “spend summers having fun with my backyard,” including, “I’m 86 for goodness sake!”
Lawson will be a part of longtime choose Paul Hollywood, who has been a staple of the baking competitors because it debuted on BBC Two in 2010.
“I’m uncharacteristically fairly misplaced for phrases proper now! After all it’s formidable to be following within the footsteps of Prue Leith and Mary Berry earlier than her, nice dames each, however I’m additionally effervescent with pleasure,” Lawson shared. “The Nice British Bake Off is greater than a tv programme, it’s a nationwide treasure – and it’s an enormous honour to be entrusted with it.”
Leith added her endorsement, saying, “I’m thrilled that Nigella is to expertise sensible Bake Off. She’s sassy, enjoyable and he or she is aware of her onions – and her croissants, cake and crumble.”
Though Lawson has been much less current on UK screens lately, she hasn’t slowed down. Her final BBC One sequence, Nigella’s Cook dinner, Eat, Repeat, aired in 2020. She’s additionally appeared incessantly on Australian tv, together with judging My Kitchen Guidelines in 2022 and 2023, and visitor judging on MasterChef Australia.
Followers will bear in mind Lawson’s earlier Channel 4 work, together with Nigella Bites, and her judging stint on The Style, the place contestants ready a single spoon of meals for her, Anthony Bourdain, and French chef Ludo Lefebvre.
Lawson joins Bake Off at a time when scores have dipped from the present’s peak. Whereas the sequence as soon as drew 10 million viewers on BBC One, its Channel 4 iteration hasn’t reached these heights. Nonetheless, the 2025 season 16 premiere noticed a lift of round 600,000 viewers from the earlier 12 months, totaling 7.26 million.
Channel 4’s Ian Katz expressed enthusiasm for the brand new pairing: “We’re extremely excited concerning the marriage of two nice British icons: Bake Off and Nigella … this summer season’s sequence might be as mouthwatering a prospect as her chocolate Guinness cake.”
Born to Nigel Lawson, a British politician, and Vanessa Salmon, heiress to a tea firm, Nigella grew up in London. She began her profession as a literary editor at The Sunday Instances earlier than writing restaurant and guide evaluations for numerous publications. Her first food-focused guide, How you can Eat, was printed in 1998 and kickstarted a prolific profession that now consists of 13 cookbooks.
The mom of two has additionally since hosted a slew of meals reveals, from Nigella Feasts and Nigella Specific to visitor appearances on MasterChef Australia and Iron Chef America.
