Lawson has been a celebrity chef in the United Kingdom for nearly three decades and has appeared on American television, as well.
The new season of “The Great British Baking Show” returned to the United States on Friday, and fans were introduced to the show’s new judge, Nigella Lawson.
Lawson replaced former judge Prue Leith, who left the show after the 2025 season, saying that at 86 years old, she has other things she wants to do with her time.
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Lawson has been a celebrity chef for decades in the U.K., starting as a food writer for “The Sunday Times” in 1995. Lawson’s 1998 cookbook “How to Eat” and its 2000 follow-up “How to Be a Domestic Goddess” made her a household name. She made her British television debut with “Nigella Bites” in 2000.
Lawson is no stranger to American television either, though not as universally known as she is across the pond. “Nigella Bites” was broadcast in the U.S. on E! Entertainment Television and later, she starred in her own Food Network show, “Nigella Feasts,” starting in 2006. Lawson also wrote a column for The New York Times.
Lawson joined fellow judge and Bake Off mainstay Paul Hollywood to taste and score the food made by 12 new amateur bakers.
Hollywood told The Guardian, “It was lovely to see Nigella come into the tent. We’ve only had two changes to the judging team in 16 years, but it’s worked really well. I’ve always been a big fan and she fitted in beautifully – not just with me but with the whole team. She picked up the Bake Off vibe straight away. It was pretty seamless, actually.”
Lawson told the outlet she wasn’t sure whether she was qualified to be a judge on the show.
“I had a big meeting with the producers and said, ‘Look, these are the things I can’t do.’ They said: ‘That’s OK, that’s what Paul does,'” she said. “I’m not a scientist, a technician or a professional baker, but what I can do is talk about food, its taste, texture and why I like it.”
Hosts Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond also returned to the show, and they told “The Dish” podcast that working with Lawson was “Unbelievable. Amazing.”
They said that sometimes Lawson and Hollywood don’t agree on food, and that makes it “quite exciting television.”
“They have slightly different taste, don’t they?” Fielding said. “She likes very salty kind of savory things. He likes more sweet. He’s got more of a sweet tooth. They always end up resolving it and coming together, but it’s quite sparky when they don’t agree.”
Lawson and Hollywood will judge bakes from the new contestants, bakers who range from a drag king, to a competitive sprinter, a hairdresser and a doctor. The new series premiered on Netflix on Friday and runs for 12 weeks, with typically one baker eliminated each week until a winner is announced.
Dining and Cooking