Prue Leith

Literally all I knew about Prue Leith before reading her autobiography was that she was from South Africa and took over from Mary Berry on Bake Off, but like the lady herself says: 'To this day I am an intellectual groupie. Not clever, artistic or particularly talented myself, I remain in awe of writers, artists and musicians, am ‘turned on’ by interesting, achieving people.' I knew she would have a fascinating life story - so far! - and she does!

Prue Leith is both brutally honest and wonderfully proud of her achievements, telling her story her own way and refusing to spare anybody's blushes. She even warns in the introduction that she was 'unable to resist some memories of the fat-cat life of a company director' and that her 'readers can skip, after all', but I found her later professional life, after establishing restaurants and a cooking school which is still going, to be interesting and full of 'Well, I never knew that!' moments. Prue introduced decent sandwiches on trains, good sausages in supermarkets and started the continuing tradition of installing modern art projects on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square!

Her personal life is equally dramatic, shall I say - no wonder she writes novels! After leaving South Africa, Prue travelled Europe, including falling in love for the first time in Paris and living the cliched 60s bohemian student's experience, before settling in London - and starting an affair with the husband of her mother's best friend. No punches pulled! They eventually married and had two children, including adopting a daughter from Cambodia, and they were together until his death in 2002, but some readers will no doubt be shocked.

But her honesty about herself is why I love Prue so much - 'That sort of unthinking lack of tact is, alas, one of my besetting sins', she warns, and 'I hate the way I look, especially in profile. And I can’t bear my schoolmistressy voice.' And the fact that she describes herself as 'anally organised' - 'I don’t quite plump cushions as soon as someone stands up, but I do go round shutting doors and hanging up coats' - has endeared this woman to me for life!

Such an entertaining and heartfelt life story from one of Britain's most treasured celebs! Cook, businesswoman, company director, author, and judge, Prue Leith has ticked every box and is still going strong, now married for the second time to the dapper John Playfair. One of the best autobiographies I have read!… (meer)

Classics
Chocolate
Bakers' Favorites
Fruit & Nut
Free-From (e.g. gluten free, vegan, etc.)

An absolutely beautiful book, luscious to look at. I made the Victoria sponge (p. 25) and it came out perfectly, though I did need to add a tablespoon or two of milk to the buttercream (as the online recipe suggests: rel="nofollow" target="_top">https://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/marys-victoria-sandwich/). For self-rising flour, I used 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt per cup of flour.

Everything in here looks tempting; I'm planning to make the Pear & Hazelnut Cake (p.168) and perhaps a few others: the Layered Coffee Cake (p. 149) and the Blackberry Pound Cake (p. 182). The Chocolate Pinata Cake (p. 103) would be an ambitious but very fun birthday cake, too...

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Update February 2020: Made pear & hazelnut cake, VERY good - actually better the second day (first day, the cake was a bit dry, but the pear and frosting make up for it).… (meer)

The Prodigal Daughter is the second in Prue Leith's Food of Love trilogy, which started with The Food of Love: Laura's Story. It can be read as a standalone but I think you would miss a lot of the background if you did that. This latest offering follows Laura's daughter, Angelica Angelotti, who is a budding chef in the late 1960s. We see her fall in love with a charming but unpredictable man, go to cookery school in Paris, work at The Savoy and then run a village inn whilst following a career in TV and food writing.

I am a fan of Prue Leith's writing, having read several of her other books. She doesn't always write about food but in this book she has written about what she knows best and I really enjoyed it. She clearly used her own experiences to write about Angelica's TV and food writing and I suspect that some of the things that happen in the book are Leith's own anecdotes or ones that she has heard about.

There are lots of descriptions of food, both menus and preparation, which was something that I relished (!) and I loved reading about the various restaurants that feature in the story.

It was lovely to meet the Angelottis and their extended family again. I thought Angelica was a feisty force of nature, although she did seem to be good at everything she turned her hand to! This is a book that I looked forward to picking up. It's a good old-fashioned family saga and I'm looking forward to the final book in the trilogy which will hopefully be published in the autumn of next year, particularly as this one ended very abruptly and left me hanging somewhat!

The Prodigal Daughter is an engaging read with some likeable characters and fascinating settings. I'd recommend it if you like reading books where food is almost a character in its own right.… (meer)