Dame Prue Leith has shared a rather shocking kitchen mishap from her past, revealing she once “stabbed” a colleague in what she calls a “shameful” accident. The beloved Great British Bake Off judge recounted the incident, explaining that at the time she was pregnant and felt “unbalanced” both “physically and mentally”. Prue recalled the moment she was holding a “short, sharp knife” and lost her footing. In an attempt to catch herself, Prue ended up accidentally stabbing a chef. She was initially terrified that she had “unmanned” him, and described the ensuing “chaos” as “shaming”. Penning her experience for The I, she wrote: “I once stabbed someone. By accident. “I was cooking in my restaurant, and I was very pregnant at the time and pretty unbalanced, probably physically and mentally. I was standing by the range with a short sharp knife in my hand and I slipped.
The star spoke of how she thought she had ‘unmanned’ the chef
(Image: Getty Images)
“As I fell, I flung my arm out to try to save myself and stabbed the third chef in his groin. I thought I’d unmanned him. It felt like I’d stuck it into a leg of lamb.” The mother-of-two explained that they had to remove the injured man’s trousers to “stem the bleeding”. However, he was reluctant to do so in front of Prue due to his religious beliefs, she added. Prue also confessed that the incident made her feel nauseous, leading her to rush to the toilets to be sick. She attributes this reaction to both her pregnancy and the shock of having “stuck a knife into someone”.
Prue with Paul Hollywood, Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding on Bake Off
(Image: PA)
She recalls that the chef received “lots of attention” after the incident. She elaborated: “When he’d recovered – after we gave him lots of attention and love and money as he was off work for a while – he said he’d used the compensation I’d given him to open a café in Barcelona. So, it all ended happily, although I’m sure he’d rather I hadn’t stabbed him.” Prue’s journey into the food industry began in 1960 when she enrolled at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London. Not long after, she launched her first venture, providing high-end business lunches. Her career flourished as she later opened the Michelin-starred restaurant Leith’s in Notting Hill, which she eventually sold in 1995. Additionally, she founded the acclaimed Leith’s School of Food and Wine, known for training professional chefs. Prue made her television debut in the 1970s, hosting a 13-part magazine show targeted at women. For over a decade, she served as a judge on the Great British Menu, stepping down in 2016. Prue was revealed as Mary Berry’s successor on the beloved Bake Off in 2017. She has since been a staple on the show, judging alongside Paul Hollywood, though she has recently taken a step back from its celebrity editions.
