Nadiya Hussain on TV longevity, identity and Quick Comforts

Nadiya Hussain says she hopes to continue cooking on television into later life, but believes that kind of long career is not available to everybody.

“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 television presenter rose to prominence after winning the Great British Bake Off in 2015. She then made cookery programmes for the BBC for 10 years, but says she was “shocked” when the shows were not recommissioned last year.

Nadiya Hussain on representation and TV longevity

As a Muslim woman working in food television, the mother of three says it is “really hard to pick a few” Muslim female chefs on screen.

“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.”

Hussain has now published her 11th cookbook, Nadiya’s Quick Comforts, which celebrates the quick meals she repeatedly cooks at home but intends to be savoured 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.”

She says she is moving into an unfamiliar phase without another television programme lined up, after so many years in which one had always been on the horizon, and calls that prospect “scary”.

Publishing a cookbook and then making a television series had become routine. “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.”

Faith, food and a fresh start

Last year, Hussain released a cookbook centred on Ramadan, marking the first time she had “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.”

Rather than treating the decision as purely a rejection, Hussain regarded it as a prompt to reassess her direction and an opportunity to demonstrate to her children what is important.

“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.”

Quick Comforts and cooking without rules

Since her well-known Bake Off victory, when she moved viewers with an emotional speech about believing in herself, Hussain says she has changed considerably.

“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.”

At a time when people are often urged to reduce particular foods, Hussain instead presents food as a source of safety and warmth. Her recipes include deep-fried cheese strings for a fried-cheese dish and corn pakoras, which she offers visitors in place of biscuits when they come to her home for tea. There are straightforward, family-friendly tray bakes, including shawarma fries and frankfurter bacon sarnies, as well as an all-in-one-pan chicken roast dinner that is ready in under an hour.

For those who think crumpets are only for butter and jam, she suggests her savoury crumpets recipe: torn crumpets fried with onion, chilli and egg, then finished with 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.”

Dessert is, naturally, part of comfort food too, with recipes such as brown butter pecan coffee cake and croissant berry pudding slices.

With every new cookbook and every passing year, Hussain says she has become increasingly at ease with 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.”