How ‘British Baking Show’ judge approaches icing – and success

Prue Leith, “The Great British Baking Show” judge, wears yellows, blues, and reds that are as bold as a Mondrian painting and embody the bright optimism she exudes on screen.

Ms. Leith is perhaps Britain’s answer to Martha Stewart. By age 29, the South Africa-born chef had launched Leiths, a Michelin-starred restaurant. In 1975, she founded her first cooking school. She later became a newspaper food columnist, cookbook author, romance novelist, and a judge on several British culinary television shows.

Ms. Leith, who was made a dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2021, is also the author of the recent release “I’ll Try Anything Once,” an updated version of her autobiography. 

Her latest endeavor is a new iteration of “The Great American Baking Show.” Filmed inside the same tent in Britain as the original flagship show, it features American contestants under the watchful gaze of Ms. Leith and her regular judging partner Paul Hollywood. The series will debut on the Roku Channel in 2023.

In the meantime, a celebrity holiday episode is streaming as of Dec. 2 on Roku. Ms. Leith spoke with the Monitor via Zoom. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

The holiday episode features celebrities such as actor D’Arcy Carden (“The Good Place”) and football player Marshawn Lynch. It seemed like some of them had never set foot in a kitchen before.

[Paul and I] both enormously enjoy the celebrity shows because we usually film them after a run of the main show. You’re dealing with nothing but madly ambitious bakers for whom it matters tremendously that they don’t go home. It’s a life and death thing for them. And then you get a bunch of celebrities who are in the tent for completely different reasons, usually because they’re fans of the show. So the atmosphere from the beginning is not so competitive.

What’s interesting is, towards the end of the two days, every single one of those bakers wants to win! ... [Marshawn] was convinced he was doing everything wrong. He was absolutely sure he shouldn’t be there. He was really worried. Well, his attitude changed. He was good.

When you’re judging contestants, you always seem to try to find something positive to offer as feedback. Why?

It’s quite something to cook something in front of millions of people with cameras on. I don’t want it to be stressful. I think it’s so easy for us as judges, because we see so much great baking all the time, to just take it for granted that they can make a perfect sponge or that they can make a really delicious butter icing. The easy thing to do is to look for the problems so that you’ve got something to criticize. I make an effort to remember this is a great bake to start with, and then there’s something wrong with it. 

Did “The Great American Baking Show” contestants bring particularly American flavors to the recipes? 

I do remember having to be educated in one or two types of cake that I wasn’t familiar with. Americans tend to put a little bit more sugar into stuff. Americans are much more used to chile than we are. Once or twice we get chile that would absolutely blow your head off!

The ovens are in centigrade and the measuring cups are in the metric system. So that must be a bit of an adjustment for the American bakers. 

They will be baking very hard for six months before the show ever starts. You have to work very hard. They will be following Paul’s recipe books much more than mine, because he does more baking books than I do. So they will be very used to different measurements. I have to say, I rather like your cup … because it’s so easy, so quick. 

When you launched Leiths in 1969 was it more difficult then, as a woman, to be an entrepreneur?

I left the Cordon Bleu, where I trained as a cook, and I immediately just started cooking people’s dinner parties. I was a freelance chef for hire. I’d always work for myself. The problems for women in the workplace come from their bosses. 

I was always very entrepreneurial. When I opened that restaurant, I was losing money hand-over-fist the first few weeks. I thought, “I’ve never owned a restaurant. I’ve never worked in a restaurant. What am I doing, thinking I can run one?” And so I made a deliberate effort to make friends with some restaurateurs. I found a true and wonderful guy called Joseph Berkmann. He said, “You’re giving huge portions and people aren’t eating them all.” I thought because I had a fixed price, that I had to be very generous. 

The only woman running a posh restaurant in London at the time was Madame Prunier, and she was running her husband’s restaurant. Mine was the first one that was my own restaurant. So I got huge publicity. I filled the restaurant up with people. Gradually we got better at it. And then we got a Michelin star. 

What’s your philosophy on purpose and meaning and fulfillment?

I was born with this glass-half-full attitude. ... I’m always keen to know the next thing. If I go to a town, I want to go to the museums. I want to do this. I want to do that. I think the one quality which I think I have developed over the years, which is very useful, is that I’m quite dogged. You know, it’s, “I’ve got a good idea; I will stick at it until it happens and I don’t give up easily.”

“The Great American Baking Show: Celebrity Holiday,” rated TV-14, is streaming now on the Roku Channel.