Prue Leith Biography
Prue Leith DBE is a South African restaurateur, TV host/broadcaster, cookbook author, and novelist. She spent eleven years as a judge on BBC Two’s Great British Menu before joining The Great British Bake Off in March 2017.
How old is Prue Leith? – Age
She is 83 years old as of 18 February 2023. She was born in 1940 in Cape Town, South Africa. Her real name is Prudence Margaret Leith.
Prue Leith Family
Her father, Sam Leith, worked for African Explosives, an ICI subsidiary that produced dynamite for use in mines and eventually became a director. Margaret “Peggy” Inglis, her mother, was an actress. James Leith, a former restaurateur, is married to biographer Penny Junor.
Prue Leith Education
Leith attended St Mary’s School, Waverley, an English independent private boarding school for girls in Johannesburg administered by Anglican nuns, from the age of five to the age of seventeen. She graduated with honors and went on to study at the University of Cape Town, where she failed to complete any classes in drama, fine art, architecture, or French. She persuaded her parents to let her attend the Sorbonne (officially, the University of Paris), reportedly to improve her French while taking the Cours de Civilisation Française.
Prue Leith Husband
From 1974 until his death in December 2002, Leith was married to property developer and author Rayne Kruger, with whom she had previously had a 13-year affair when he was married to his first wife. A son and a daughter were born to the couple. Li-Da Kruger (a Cambodian adoptive) is their daughter and a filmmaker. Danny Kruger, their son, was a speechwriter and consultant to David Cameron before becoming the Conservative MP for Devizes in December 2019. Leith married retired clothing designer John Playfair in October 2016; the couple first lived apart in different homes, but have since built a house together in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, where they both dwell.
Prue Leith Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of £85 million.
Prue Leith Cookbooks
She has written seven novels in addition to 12 food books, including Leith’s food Bible: Leaving Patrick, Sisters, A Lovesome Thing, Choral Society, A Serving of Scandal, The Food of Love: Laura’s Story, and The Prodigal Daughter. These two are from the Food of Love trilogy. Relish, her memoir, was released in 2013.
Prue Leith House
She was in Moreton-in-Marsh, a picturesque town near the Oxfordshire border. Moreton-in-Marsh has seen a lot of growth and development in recent years, which has increased traffic a little, but it still isn’t as bad as the city’s gridlocked streets.
The pretty market town of Moreton-in-Marsh is located in the north Gloucestershire Cotswolds. The majority of the houses in this area are constructed from honey-colored local stone. The average price of a home in Moreton-in-Marsh is slightly higher than the average price of a home in Gloucestershire, and it is also slightly higher than other locations in England with a density that is comparable. Over the course of the previous year, properties in Moreton-In-Marsh had an overall average price of £572,733 according to Rightmove.
Prue Leith Brexit
She has also been a vocal supporter of Brexit, justifying her decision, however she has since expressed concern over the lowering of food standards.
Prue Leith Restaurant – Career
After moving to London in 1960 to attend the Cordon Bleu Cookery School, Leith established a company that provided premium business lunches. She opened Leith’s, her Notting Hill restaurant with a Michelin star, in 1969. She established Leith’s School of Food and Wine in 1975, which educates both professional and amateur cooks. In 1995, she helped tracked down the Prue Leith School (presently renamed Prue Leith Culinary expert’s Foundation) in South Africa. She worked to improve the British Railways Board’s catering after being appointed in 1977.
She wrote food columns for the Daily Mail, Sunday Express, The Guardian, and Daily Mirror over the course of her career. She has written seven novels and 12 cookbooks, including Leith’s Cookery Bible. Relish, her memoir, was released in 2013. She served as a commissioner on Channel 4’s Poverty Commission in 1999. She got back to TV to be an appointed authority on The Incomparable English Menu for a very long time until 2016 and an appointed authority for My Kitchen Rules, which she left to supplant Mary Berry in The Incomparable English She has been engaged with food in training, establishing and leading the foundation Spotlight on Food (presently part of the Dirt Affiliation) which advances cooking in the educational program, and setting ready We should Get Cooking, an association of north of 5,000 cooking clubs in state schools.
She serves as vice president of The Sustainable Restaurant Association, is a trustee of Baby Taste Journey, and is a patron of the Prue Leith Chef’s Academy, Sustain’s Campaign for Better Hospital Food, and The Institute for Food, Brain, and Behaviour in her home country of South Africa. She has also been involved in general education, serving as chair of Ashridge Management College from 2002 to 2007, managing a company that turned around failing schools and managed academies from 1998 to 2006, and chairman of the board of governors at Kings College, a secondary school in Guildford, from 2000 to 2007. She has also spoken out in favor of Brexit, defended her decision, and led a successful campaign to use the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square, which is now known as the Fourth Plinth, to house changing sculptures or installations by the best contemporary artists. Prue Leith is a non-executive director of British Rail, British Transport Hotels, Safeway, Argyll plc, the Leeds Permanent Building Society, Whitbread plc, Woolworths plc, the Halifax, Triven VCT, Omega International plc, and Belmond Hotels Ltd.
Leith was hitched to property designer and creator Rayne Kruger, with whom she had a 13-year illicit relationship. They had two kids, Li-Da Kruger (a Cambodian adoptee) and Danny Kruger (a speech specialist and counsel to David Cameron). Leith wed retired clothing designer John Playfair in October 2016. Her sibling, ex-restaurateur James Leith, is hitched to the biographer Penny Junor. The eating disorder awareness organization Beat criticized Leith for her Great British Bakeoff catchphrase, “Worth the calories.”
She supported Dominic Cummings and Mary Wakefield’s breach of the virus lockdown in May 2020. She appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4′ in December 2021.