Prue Leith

Dame Prudence Margaret Leith, (born 18 February 1940) is a South African restaurateur, television presenter/broadcaster, cookery writer and novelist. She is Chancellor of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. She was a judge on BBC Two's Great British Menu for eleven years, before joining The Great British Bake Off in March 2017, replacing Mary Berry, when the television programme moved to Channel 4. Leith was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Her father, Sam Leith, worked for African Explosives, a subsidiary of ICI, producing dynamite for use in mines, and ultimately served as a director. Her mother, Margaret "Peggy" Inglis, was an actress. From the age of five until she was 17, Leith attended St Mary's School, Waverley, an English independent private boarding school for girls in Johannesburg, run by Anglican nuns. She left with a first-class matriculation and studied at the University of Cape Town, where she failed to follow for any length of time courses in drama, fine art, architecture or French. She persuaded her parents to allow her to attend the Sorbonne (formally, the University of Paris), ostensibly to learn French better while studying the Cours de Civilisation Française. While in Paris, she finally realised she wanted a career in the food industry. In 1960, Leith moved to London to attend the Cordon Bleu Cookery School and 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, her Michelin-starred restaurant in Notting 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, which she then sold. In 1995, she helped found the Prue Leith College, since renamed Prue Leith Chef's Academy, and Prue Leith Culinary Institute in South Africa. Odd Plate Restaurant name has been changed to Prue Leith's Restaurant. The first woman appointed to the British Railways Board in 1980, she set about improving its much-criticised catering.