I prefer pub food to posh food.

Nobody should eat too much cake.

I can't resist temptation of any kind.

I'm an optimist - very glass half-full.

I was an intellectual groupie. Still am.

Don't spend time with anyone you don't like.

It's so nice to slip into the lap of luxury.

If I am tanned, I feel a million times better.

I probably eat yogurt more than anything else.

I would have my last meal at my home in Oxfordshire.

I try to spend most weekends in the Cotswolds, having fun.

I couldn't live without my faithful companion, Megs the dog.

I'm not clever. But I am level-headed, hard-working, dogged.

I believe in good, honest food. That's always been my ethos.

Nothing beats that sloppy kiss of a six-month-old grandchild.

I'm a good cook, I am not a great cook. I'm an absolute fraud.

When you get to fifty-two food becomes more important than sex.

If I'm going to do something, I'll do it properly or not at all.

You can serve good food on a budget provided you don't waste it.

My grandchildren love cooking, and it doesn't have to be sweet things.

I'm quite lazy. I don't want to learn a new subject like shipbuilding.

I've baked more cakes since I've been on 'Bake Off' than I have in my life.

My worst habit is opening the fridge and thinking: 'I'd like to eat something.'

I do think it is the responsibility of parents to feed their children properly.

Very few parents give out healthy lunchboxes due to pressure from their children.

I've always had an image of Mother's Pride flour, very respectable and middle-class.

I think the BBC likes to have Mary Berry and me around to rebut the charge of ageism.

With contemporary writers, I often buy books and then realise I've bought them before.

An awful lot of older women do have love affairs or wish they were having love affairs.

Children aren't being taught to cook or encouraged to try things or told why food is important.

I go to Michelin-starred restaurants as part of my job, but that's not how I want to eat all the time.

I love writing fiction and can do it anywhere - I once even missed a flight because I was so engrossed.

I have strong hair, so if I've had a good haircut, I can wash my hair in the bath and not worry about it.

Modern cookbooks are marketing tools for chefs. They're in the bestseller lists but no one cooks from them.

I went to drama school but soon realised I was terrible at acting, so I ditched drama school for art school.

I get cross with foodies who think hospital food should be Michelin-star and caterers can fall into this trap.

I've been an entrepreneur, a writer, a food correspondent. I might have been an architect - but I'm bad at maths.

All I need for a perfect holiday is sun and some peace and quiet. Those make for perfect book-writing conditions.

Bake Off' has been a renaissance for me. I turn up, taste something and get paid rather well. What could be nicer?

Food shouldn't do you any harm, obviously you don't want a bad diet, but it should be one of life's great pleasures.

I am very in favour of children having a nap after lunch because then they're not whiney and grizzly by six o'clock.

I was intending not do any more telly and then I got talked into 'My Kitchen Rules,' which I did with Michael Caines.

Why don't women say what they want, why wait to be asked? Do women intuit that it is unacceptable to appear ambitious?

I grew up in a very white, privileged, old-fashioned society in South Africa and went to a boarding school run by nuns.

If you've got children it's a hell of an everyday job. From a business point of view, children and husbands slow you down.

The way to get to like good food is by learning to cook, which is why I'm for ever banging on about children learning to cook.

What makes me laugh is 'Masterchef,' with that ridiculous thing they always say, 'cooking doesn't get any tougher than this!.'

The most followed chef is Delia Smith. She is my age and doesn't try to be entertaining, she encourages people to learn the basics.

At barbecues, people just like to eat a lot of meat; it's extraordinary. They eat far more than they normally would at a dinner party.

I was elated when I found out my first novel, 'Leaving Patrick,' about a woman who walks out on her husband, was going to be published.

Share This Page