Nadiya Hussain: ‘It’s hard not to feel like a token’

Nadiya Hussain says she dreams of cooking on TV into old age – but that longevity in the industry isn’t afforded to everyone.

“I would like to have seen myself where Mary Berry is at 90 years old, still cooking on television, I would have loved that for myself,” says the 41-year-old, “But that’s a dream that I can’t live up to because I’m not white.”

The British-Bangladeshi chef, author and TV presenter, who won the Great British Bake Off in 2015 and was catapulted to fame, spent 10 years making cooking shows for the BBC, but the shows weren’t recommissioned last year – a decision she says “shocked” her.

The mum-of-three notes that it’s “really hard to pick a few” Muslim female chefs on TV.

“Because we don’t have longevity. I can’t even find another Muslim woman to equate myself to, or stand shoulder-to-shoulder with.

“It’s hard not to feel like a token, because it’s almost like we’re allowed a certain amount of space, until that space no longer exists for us – when the box has been ticked.”

“There’s this kind of show of, ‘Look, we’re inclusive’, until we’re not.”

The TV chef and cookery author has released her 11th cookbook, Nadiya’s Quick Comforts – celebrating the food she makes so often at home, that’s fast to make and designed to be enjoyed slowly.

“This is exactly where I am and what I cook for my kids, because my eldest is moving out soon, and then my second will be moving out at the end of the year, and all they want is comfort food All they want is yummy food that’s delicious.”

Hussain is entering a new era, without a TV show on the horizon, as she did for so long and “it’s scary”, she says.

Regularly publishing a cookbook, followed by a TV series, had become the norm for her. “I’d gone into autopilot where I was like, ‘I’ve got a book, of course I’m going to do a series’, and when that was taken away from me, I didn’t have a conversation with anyone, it was just taken away from me with no explanation.”

Last year she published a cookbook about Ramadan, in which, for the first time, she “attached faith and food together”.

“Up to that point, I was the digestible version of myself for the general public,” she says, and now had become “too much” for some people. “I thought, you know what, in that case, I have not been enough.

“When the BBC cancelled the show, I thought to myself, ‘Oh, I see what’s happening’. And so from that point, I got rid of my management, I needed to start from scratch.

“[I thought] I cannot become this manufactured caricature version of myself that everybody thinks is sellable as a brand.

“I need to be the version of myself that allows me to sleep at night, because right now I can’t sleep.”

“I think what’s really important for the kids to see is integrity. And I look back at 10 years and going in that autopilot mode and just doing as I’m told, because that’s what will get you the book deals, and that’s what will get you the TV, and that’s where you just, just comply, comply, comply.

“My daughter’s struggle will be different as a Muslim woman in this society. My sons will have their own struggles, always less so because they’re men – her struggles will be greater. And what I’m trying to teach her is that being compliant and submissive is not the way you speak your truth, you speak your mind, and it may make you less rich, but you will sleep at night.”

Since that famous Bake Off win, where Hussain pulled on the nation’s heartstrings with an impassioned speech about believing in herself, she has come a long way.

“You do a lot of self-reflection and growth in 11 years,” she notes. “I’ve changed so much, and this and every year, I feel like more myself than I ever have.

“It’s knowing yourself, and I think that shows in the way I cook. I’m not scared to just say, this is what I love to do. And I’m not scared to say I deep-fry three times a week, and that’s absolutely fine,” she laughs.

“I could write an entire book on deep-fat frying, I absolutely would, because it gives you a texture that nothing else can give you.”

In a world that often encourages us to cut back on certain foods, Hussain is instead encouraging us to see food as warmth and safety. Whether that’s deep-frying cheese strings for her fried-cheese recipe or the corn pakoras she serves up instead of biscuits when people come round to her house for tea. You’ll find easy family-friendly tray bakes – like shawarma fries or frankfurter bacon sarnies – alongside an all-in-one-pan chicken roast dinner that takes less than an hour.

And if you thought crumpets were just for butter and jam, try Hussain’s savoury crumpets dish – torn and fried up with onions, chilli and egg, and sprinkled in coriander.

“We are so bound by rules and habit,” she notes, “but if you step out of your comfort zone, you actually do really wonderful things with simple ingredients. I’ve been having savoury crumpets for years.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be comfort food without dessert; think brown butter pecan coffee cake and croissant berry pudding slices.

With every book, and each year that passes, Hussain feels more comfortable being “unapologetically” herself.

“I think once you get to your 40s, there’s a comfort in your own skin. I thought 30s was the decade. It’s not, it’s 40.

“I used to think 40 was really old, when I think back, but actually, I feel more alive now than I ever felt.

And “I’m really excited about what that could mean for me in five or 10 years.”

BBC Spokesperson said: “After many wonderful series we made the difficult decision not to commission another cookery show with Nadiya Hussain for the time being. We remain open to working with her in the future.”

Nadiya’s Quick Comforts by Nadiya Hussain is published in hardback by Penguin Michael Joseph, priced £28. Photography by Chris Terry. Available now.