Prue believer
I met John Playfair, Prue Leith’s second husband (or, as she teasingly refers to him, ‘my current husband’), at her cooking demo in Cape Town, so I know he really does exist – otherwise I might have been tempted to propose to her myself. She’s one of those people you just want to be around forever: clever, funny, positive, curious, fun (her kids would say ‘tiring’ she says), both interesting and interested (quite rare, in famous people) and self-deprecating without that kind of fake modesty that makes you want to smack someone in the head with their Michelin star – or perhaps, in her case, her CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire). Plus, she’s a fabulous cook, obviously… I’m not sure it gets much better than that.
Born in Cape Town 80 years ago (close up, that’s even harder to believe), Prue was the only daughter of three children.
‘I had a very happy childhood,’ she says. ‘I was quite over-confident.’ Which may partly explain how she had the guts to leave South Africa to au pair in
