The show's judge reveals a memory from her past that has haunted her for the longest time.
Dame Prue Leith has been a recurring favorite judge on the Great British Bake Off following the exit of Dame Mary Berry in 2017. She has thus far had a successful career as a celebrity chef and restauranter, beginning on her path towards the cooking industry following the inception of her catering company in the 1960s, reports The Sun.
Recently, the celebrity chef opened up about a moment from her life that left her traumatized for a period of time.
Recalling a traumatic memory
The Daily Mail reports that at one point during her childhood, the Bake Off judge helped her mother drown a litter of kittens, and stated that 'for weeks I imagined those poor dead creatures.'
She further noted that there was a frequency of having too many kittens and this made the process of finding a home for the little creatures much more difficult. Following the realization that she couldn't do anything about it, Dame Prue's mother made the decision to drown the kittens.
Dame Prue noted:
My protests were met with a firm, 'Darling, it has to be done. They are only a few hours old. They will hardly know it’s happening'
Her mother assured her that the kittens wouldn't feel a thing and that it would only take a short amount of time to send them to permanent sleep, but in reality, Dame Prue describes that the kittens 'fought like the devil for life.'
The Daily Mail further reports that throughout the process Dame Prue's mother had a change of heart, but the celebrity chef was determined to finish what they had started. She mentions that the bag was held under the water until the sounds of mewing came to a deafening silence, and the kittens stopped moving.
A catering incident
Speaking to the Independent, Dame Prue mentioned a particular moment from her professional career that haunts her to this day. On her Nothing in Moderation tour, she noted that during the early stages of her career she accidentally gave 30 people food poisoning through her catering service.
She elaborated on the situation stating that 28 people were hospitalized with one elderly person being in critical condition following the incident. She said 'He could have ended up in the morgue!'
At the time, her catering company was tasked with delivering a chicken mayonnaise dish for 25 people, but at the last minute five more people were added to the list and this prompted the catering company to act in haste to meet the sudden change in requirements.
Dame Prue said:
The cooks poached another chicken while the flesh was still warm, which is a crime, and they mixed with the chicken that was already there.
Additionally, there weren't any refrigerating facilities at the venue, and due to a delay in serving the food and the particularly hot day, the dish that was served to the group of people had evidently gone bad and it ultimately ended up in mass food poisoning.
She noted that:
It haunts me that episode as everybody was ill. All 30 people but two of them ended up in the hospital and one of them was in critical care as he was very old and was a High Court judge.
The Bake Off Judge has noted that these situations have been a wake-up call for her to change the way she approached her work.
Read more:
⋙ These are the rules The Great British Bake Off contestants have to follow
⋙ The Great British Bake Off: Everything you need to know about judge Prue Leith
