Prue Leith

Dame Prudence Margaret Leith,DBE(born 18 February 1940) is a South Africanrestaurateur, broadcaster, cookery writer and novelist.
She wasChancellorofQueen Margaret University,Edinburghfrom 2017 to 2024. She was a judge onBBC Two'sGreat British Menufor eleven years, before joiningThe Great British Bake Offin March 2017, replacingMary Berry, when the television programme moved toChannel 4.
Leith was born inCape Town,Cape Province,Union of South Africa.
In 1960, Leith moved to London to attend theCordon Bleu Cookery Schooland then began a business supplying high-quality business lunches. This grew to become Leith's Good Food, a party and event caterer.In 1969, she opened Leith's, herMichelin-starred restaurant inNotting Hill, eventually selling it in 1995.In 1975, she founded Leith's School of Food and Wine, which trains professional chefs and amateur cooks.The group reached a turnover of £15 million in 1993. She sold it and, in 1995, helped found the Prue Leith College, since renamed Prue Leith Chef's Academy,and Prue Leith Culinary Institutein South Africa.Odd Plate Restaurantwas renamed Prue Leith's Restaurant.
The first woman appointed to the British Railways Board in 1980,she set about improving its much-criticised catering. The catering division,Travellers Fare, was detached from thehotels businessin 1982 with outlets created, including Casey Jones and Upper Crust. Leith left British Rail in September 1985.
Concurrently with running her business, Leith became a food columnist for, successively, theDaily Mail,Sunday Express,The Guardianand theDaily Mirror. Aside from writing 12 cookery books, includingLeith's Cookery Bible, she has written seven novels:Leaving Patrick,Sisters,A Lovesome Thing,Choral Society,A Serving of Scandal,The Food of Love: Laura's StoryandThe Prodigal Daughter. These last two form part of theFood of Lovetrilogy. Her memoir,Relish, was published in 2013.
Her first television appearance was in the 1970s as a presenter of two 13-episode magazine series aimed at women at home, made byTyne Tees Television. She was a last-minute replacement forJack de Manio, and with no experience and a director who liked everything scripted, including interviews, she disliked the experience. Later, in the 1980s, she was the subject of two television programmes about her life and career: the first episode ofChannel 4'sTake Six Cooksand the BBC'sThe Best of British, a series about young entrepreneurs. In 1999, she was one of the Commissioners on Channel 4's Poverty Commission. She returned to television to be a judge onThe Great British Menufor 11 years until 2016 and a judge forMy Kitchen Rules, which she left to replaceMary BerryinThe Great British Bake Off.
She has been involved in food in education. When chair of theRoyal Society of Artsshe founded and chaired the charity Focus on Food (now part of theSoil Association) which promotes cooking in the curriculum. She also started, with the charity Training for Life, the Hoxton Apprentice; a not-for-profit restaurant which for ten years trained the most disadvantaged long-term unemployed young people. Until 2015, she was a member of the Food Strand of the grant-giving foundation, Esmée Fairbairne. From 2007 to 2010, she was the Chair of theSchool Food Trust, the governmentquangolargely responsible for the improvement in school food afterJamie Oliver’s television exposé of the poor state of school dinners.The Trust (now the Children's Food Trust) also set up and runs Let's Get Cooking, an organisation of over 5,000 cooking clubs in state schools, of which she is a patron.She is vice-president of The Sustainable Restaurant Association; a trustee of Baby Taste Journey (an education charity concerned with healthy food for infants); Patron of The Institute for Food, Brain and Behaviour, Sustain's Campaign for Better Hospital Food, and the Prue Leith Chef's Academy in her native South Africa.
She has also been active in general education, chairing Ashridge Management College (2002–07); 3E's Enterprises (an education company turning round failing schools and managing academies (1998–2006) and Chairman of Governors at the secondary schoolKings Collegein Guildford (2000–07).
She has also been involved in many diverse organisations: she chaired the Restaurateurs Association (1990–94); she was a member of the Investors in People working group; she chaired theRoyal Society of Arts(RSA; 1995–97); andForum for the Future(2000–03). She was a director of the housing association,Places for People(1999–2003) and a member of the Consumer Debt Working Group that contributed to theConservative Party's 2006 policy documentBreakdown Britain(2004–05). She has also been one of the voices in favour ofBrexit, defending her choice, although lately voicing concern over lowering of food standards.
While at the RSA, she led the successful campaign to use the empty plinth, now known as the Fourth Plinth, inTrafalgar Squareto house changing sculptures or installations by the best contemporary artists.
Leith has been a non-executive director ofBritish Rail;British Transport Hotels;Safeway; Argyll plc, theLeeds Permanent Building Society;Whitbread plc;Woolworths plc; theHalifax; Triven VCT; Omega International plc; and Belmond Hotels Ltd (formerly Orient Express Hotels) and is a director and investor in several start-up companies.
In July 2017, she was installed as the Chancellor ofQueen Margaret University, Edinburgh.
In February 2024, Leith's ten-part cookery seriesPrue Leith’s Cotswold Kitchenbegan airing onITV1.In September 2024, a second series was commissioned.
In 2025, Leith participated in thesixth seriesofThe Masked Singeras "Pegasus". She was eliminated in the second episode.
Leith was married to property developer and authorRayne Krugerfrom 1974 until his death aged 80 in December 2002.  The couple had two children, a son and a daughter.Their daughter, Li-Da Kruger (a Cambodian adoptee), is a filmmaker.Their son,Danny Kruger, was a speechwriter and adviser toDavid Cameron,and is the ConservativeMPfor the constituency ofEast Wiltshire.
Similarly to Prue, who said: "I ended up voting forBrexitbut I dithered and dithered for ages because there were really good arguments on both sides",Danny Kruger said that he supported the UK leaving the EU.
In October 2016, Leith married John Playfair, a retired clothes designer; the couple originally lived apart in separate homes, but have subsequently built a house together inMoreton-in-Marsh,Gloucestershire, where they both live.
Her brother, ex-restaurateur James Leith, is married to the biographerPenny Junor.
In May 2020, she expressed support of the breach of virus lockdown byDominic CummingsandMary Wakefield,whom her son described as "old friends".
In December 2021, she was the guest onBBC Radio 4'sDesert Island Discs.
Leith's honours include theVeuve ClicquotBusiness Woman of the Year in 1990 and thirteen honorary degrees or fellowships from UK universities.
She was appointedOfficer of the Order of the British Empire(OBE) in 1989,Commander of the Order of the British Empire(CBE) in the2010 Birthday HonoursandDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire(DBE) in the2021 Birthday Honoursfor services to food, broadcasting and charity.