There are people who claim to be instinctive cooks, who never follow recipes or weigh anything at all. All I can say is they're not very fussy about what they eat. For me, cooking is an exact art and not some casual game.

My agent, Debbie, saying, 'Don't get involved in advertising.' She gets so many calls a day about me promoting a product, but I am really pleased I have never gone down that route. I don't want somebody else to make a saucepan with my name on it.

If I was a Mayor, I would sort the traffic out and that includes public transport. The traffic jams really get on my nerves.

A cake is a very good test of an oven: if it browns too much on one side and not on the other, it's not your fault - you need to have your oven checked.

Although a food processor is not an absolutely essential piece of equipment, because you can certainly chop, grate, slice, knead and mix everything by hand, it does do all these things very quickly and efficiently and saves you time and energy

I found in my whole career the best thing that can happen to you is that you hear what people want.

A measuring jug is also vital when cooking rice, as this is always measured by volume rather than by weight