Prue Leith reveals she has more strings to her bow than the Great British Bake off

"I walked onto stage in Los Angeles and everyone was cheering – it was very good for one’s ego. I can see why people don’t want to leave the stage once they get on it. The adoration is addictive.”

The Great British Bake Off, which she has judged with Paul Hollywood since it moved from the BBC to Channel 4 in 2017, is shown in America and the US audience can’t seem to get enough of her.

"I have just brought out a China range and with the postage it is twice the cost in America and yet we have sold double to over here.” Americas love the show so much that they are making their own version, filmed in Pinewood Studios with Leith and Hollywood as judges but with American contestants.

"I did think the bakers from America would be different from bakers over here,” she admits. “I thought they might want to hog the limelight or stab each other in the back, but not at all they were absolutely lovely although they do like to use more sugar and chilli than we do.”

She may be best known for the double act with Hollywood in the Bake Off tent, but underneath the bright jewellery and wacky glasses, Leith is a businesswoman and she gives an insight in to busy and eclectic career from restaurateur, chef, writer and journalist.

Before Bake Off, she enjoyed great success in the 1960s and ‘70s, she ran her own catering business and then set up Leith's Food and Wine – which trains professional cooks and amateur chefs. She has written multiple cookery books and many features about food for publications including The Guardian and also write novels.

"I am always writing,” she says. She has written eight novels and is currently wiriting her ninth although she admits it may never see the light of day. She is a great exponent of women in business and likes talking about breaking the glass ceiling of being a successful woman in male-dominated boardrooms. Leith has been 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 (formerly Orient Express Hotels) and is a director and investor in several start-up companies.

When she opened her first restaurant, Leith’s, in 1969, she “was a woman doing stuff that was usually done by men” – earning a Michelin star in the process.

She also talks about her personal life in the show. “I have only been in love three times in my life. The first was my first husband, the next time was when I was in my sixties and I fell in love with a wonderful man who was a pianist. I’m still very fond of him. Then I fell in love with my present husband as I like to call him.”

Leith was married to co- author Rayne Kruger for 28 years until he died in 2002 -they had had an affair for 13 years prior to their marriage when Kruger was married to someone else.

“I had an affair for 13 years with the man who became my husband, and he was someone else’s at the time. I can’t pretend it was right. I never regretted it as I loved him and he loved me. It all ended well, but it was very painful for a while.” The couple adopted Cambodian Li-Da Kruger who is a filmmaker and also had a son Danny Kruger, who was a speechwriter and adviser to David Cameron before becoming a Tory MP himself. In 2016, she married John Playfair, a retired clothes designer. “It is John that gave me the confidence to wear colour, chunky jewellery band bright glasses – and he knows what he is talking about .”

Taking over as judge on the Bake Off from Mary Berry when the show moved to Channel 4 was not an easy decision for Leith.

It was a surprise to Leith to even be considered for the job. “I thought, if Mary’s isn’t going to do it then it would be fantastic job, but I really thought Channel 4 would want to change everything, and get a younger judge – but guess what? They found another old lady.”

She’d just finished 11 years as a judge on BBC Two’s Great British Menu and at 75 thought perhaps it was time to retire, but she couldn’t resist. Representation of older women on TV is improving, she agrees: “The ageism message must have got through." She feels the responsibilty of maintaining the feel-good nature of the show she co-judges with Paul Hollywood and presented by Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas, although Lucas has just announced he will not be involved in the next series.

"Interestingly , during lockdown only two shows kept going, Strictly Come Dancing the the Great British Bake Off – I think they realised people needed positive feel good television when we were going through something so awful.” She describes Bake Off as “tolerant, inclusive, encouraging and kind.”But does she ever get frustrated that people now know her mainly or Bake Off?

"Not at all. Bake Off has been wonderful for me. I would never have got to do the things I am doing or meet the people I have met if they didn’t know me through Bake Off. I was at a book event recently, I sold far more books than anyone else and that’s down to Bake Off. I felt a bit guilty about it.”

Her Nothing in Moderation tour kicks off on 1 February in Shrewsbury. The 34-date tour will travel across the UK and Ireland, including Sheffield and York, before culminating at the London Palladium on 6 April.

The first half of the show sees Leith share a myriad of fascinating anecdotes about her life: taking audiences through the ups and downs of being a successful restaurateur, novelist, businesswoman and Great British Bake Off judge; feeding the rich and famous, cooking for Royalty and even poisoning her clients.

In the second half she will be joined on stage by Clive Tulloh, who will put questions to Leith from the audience.

"We get them to submit their questions before hand just so that we can group the subjects together and to make sure the same questions aren’t repeated. I am happy to talk about Bake Off but I also love it when poeple ask about women in business and other subjects that interest me. I know most people will be there because of Bake Off but that’s okay. I’ve never done a stage show before and at 82 I’m probably nuts to try it, but it’s huge fun, makes the audience laugh and lets me rant away about the restaurant trade, publishers, TV and writing, and sing the praises of food, love and life.”

Prue Leith’s Nothing in Moderation will be at Sheffield Memorial Hall on 28 February and at York Grand Opera House on March 2. Tickets from Mickperrin.com