Nigella Lawson is addressing speculation she had a feud with fellow judge Paul Hollywood on the set of The Great British Bake Off.
“We chatted for 10 minutes and had a great time. I knew instantly it was going to work,” Lawson, 66, told The Guardian of her first interaction with Hollywood, 60, in a Friday, September 18, interview.. “It surprised even us, I think, how well we hit it off.”
She continued, “It was lucky that we did get on. Can you imagine if we didn’t? I bet Paul would have said so!”
News broke in January that Lawson would replace Hollywood’s fellow judge, Prue Leith, on the fan-favorite cooking competition. (Leith, 86, voluntarily stepped down after nine years. She took over the role in 2017, when original judge Mary Berry exited the program.)
Lawson and Hollywood will be joined in the tent by cohosts Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding.
“I decided to meet everyone properly before we started. I didn’t want the first time we hung out together to be on set,” Lawson recalled, noting she first invited Hollywood to her home for drinks. “[There was] salami, olives, that kind of thing. I wasn’t going to bake for him. That would be madness.”
Upon their first meeting, the two celebrity culinary experts effortlessly went back and forth.
“One of the many lovely things about Paul is that he’s good at being teased. I called him ‘Professor Precision’, then he teased me back and suddenly it all relaxed,” she quipped. “He’s much more playful than he looks on camera. He often acts [like the] bad cop and does that laser stare but he’s always himself, which encourages other people to be themselves, too.”
Lawson added, “We complement each other. He gets straight to the point and … I’m a witterer. I love talking about food and sometimes can’t stop.”
While Lawson also quickly bonded with Hammond, 51, and Fielding, 53, she was more wary about stepping into Leith’s shoes.
“I was apprehensive at first. I wasn’t sure whether I was even qualified and mindful that it was a risk, both for me and the show,” she mused to The Guardian. “I had a big meeting with the producers and said, ‘Look, these are the things I can’t do.’ They said, ‘That’s OK, that’s what Paul does.’ I didn’t want them to go to the wrong shop, as it were. I’m not a scientist, a technician or a professional baker but what I can do is talk about food, its taste, texture and why I like it.”
The Great British Bake Off premieres on the U.K.’s Channel 4 Tuesday, September 22, at 8 p.m. BST, and stateside on Netflix Friday, September 25.
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