Paul Hollywood: Story of a baker’s rise to TV’s upper crust

Paul Hollywood never wanted to be a baker. In fact he rebelled against the career path which was set for him.

“I went to art college and wanted to become a sculptor. That last thing I wanted to do was be a baker,” says the Great British Bake Off judge.

His father , a baker, had missed much of Paul, and his two younger brothers, growing up. He went to bed shortly after they got in from school and left the house well before they got up in the morning,

“I didn’t want those early mornings,” laughs Hollywood. But he fact he would follow in his father’s footsteps was inevitable. “I tried to rebel but my dad beat me up and I eventually gave in,” he jokes. “But I remember as a teenager having to go to bed at 6pm when all my mates were going out so I could get up at 2am or 3am to go to work. There’s something not natural about it, but I did get used to it.”

Paul grew up in Wallasey on the Wirral, near Liverpool, and he remembers baking his first bread with his dad at about the age of eight.

When he was 10 his dad moved to Wilberfoss in North Yorkshire where he went on to found his own chain of bakery shops called Bread Winner, which eventually stretched from Aberdeen to Lincolnshire.

The headquarters were in York and Paul and his two brothers would come over to York on the train. It was here that a young Paul Hollywood would really discover what went on in a bakery.

“York was really where I got to know what working in a bakery was all about,” he says.

A young Paul liked to help the bakers who worked there, as did his brother, Lee, who runs a successful bakery business on the Wirral.

His bread making skills may come from his dad, but it was his mum, Gill, who was in charge of cakes and biscuits.

He would bake with her as he does now with his own son, 12-year-old Joshua, although he is adamant he doesn’t want Josh to follow in his and his grandfather’s footsteps.

“I really don’t want him to become a baker,” says Paul. “But with me for a dad and James Martin for a godfather I don’t know what he’s going to end up doing.”

It doesn’t seem to have done him much harm. He has a successful career on both sides of the Pond thanks to Bake Off, a number of cookery books and his own baking shows.

It is from his mum that Paul inherits his artistic flair.She’d been to art school and when Paul was 16 it was her footsteps he started to follow in when he embarked on an art and design course,with ambitions of becoming a sculptor. However, fate, and his dad, had different plans.

Within two years his dad’s firm had bought a bakery in Walton and he asked Paul to join him.

“I was 18 and it was too good an offer to resist.” He then joined his dad and by the age of 20 was head baker for a group of shops in the area. After a few years Paul decided to go back to Liverpool before taking a job as head baker at the Grosvenor hotel in Chester, and then moving to London as head baker at the Dorchester. But he admits to being restless, eventually ending up working for a hotel group in Cyprus and loving it. It was here that he started doing television work.

On returning to the UK he contacted an agent and television work started to come in. One of his first jobs was with Yorkshire chef James Martin and the pair have been great friends ever since. It was also on one of his earlier TV appearances that he first met Mary Berry. He had no idea that within a few years their partnership would be one of the most successful on television and help make a baking show one of the BBC’s biggest success stories.

It is something which still puzzles 47-year-old Paul.

“Who would have thought that a rough fella from Liverpool and Lady Berry would make such a successful partnership,” he says. “We also had no idea when we were asked to do the show that we were about to embark on something that would become so popular.”

But popular it has proved to be, helped in no little way by the clear bond between Hollywood and Berry, as well as the humour from their co-hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins and no doubt those piercing blue eyes.

“For some reason people just love it,” says Paul. “They love the recipes, they love the bakers and like to follow their favourites. We are a nation of bakers and I think it just inspires them.” The first series in 2010, won by Yorkshireman Ed Kimber, drew audiences of around two million, last year’s final peaked at more than 7m making it the second most popular BBC programme after Top Gear. Last night’s final saw children fashion designer Frances Quinn (pictured) crowned Great British Bake Off champion 2013. As a reward Bake Off will move to BBC1 for 2014.

Off screen, Paul’s private life has become more public than he would probably have liked.In May he split from his wife of 15 years Alexandra after rumours of a relationship between him and his American Bake Off co-host Marcela Valladolid. It is something he refuses to talk about. Instead he wants to talk about his desire to spread the word about the joys of baking. His artisan bakery in Kent which had supplied the likes of Waitrose is now in the process of becoming a baking school.

“I really love teaching,” he says. “I want to pass on my knowledge to as many people as possible through whatever medium I can, be it books, live shows, television and my baking school.” He has a new daytime series Pies and Puddings due to be aired soon and next year he plans to take his baking crusade across the UK, making stops in York and Sheffield.

“I am looking forward to coming back to York. It is really where it all began.”

Twitter: @ypcscott

Paul Hollywood live in Yorkshire

Paul Hollywood Live – Get Your Bake On will see Paul demonstrate recipes, reveal some of the secrets of being a TV chef and take the audience on a journey through his life in baking.

The show will culminate in four randomly chosen audience members coming on stage to bake with Paul.

Audience members will get a real insight into Paul’s life and career with tales from his time filming The Great British Bake Off.

Paul will demonstrate up to four of his favourite recipes during the show and four lucky audience members, chosen at random, will be invited to take part in one baking challenge with the chance to be dubbed star baker.

“This is me, but obviously I am synonymous with Bake Off now,” he says. Although who knows whether ‘Lady’ Berry will be making an appearence?

Tickets go on sale today from www.paulhollywood.com or call 0844 871 8803.