Great British Bake Off sensation John Whaite is heading to Northumberland to launch his new book. Jane Pikett is charmed
Here’s a starter for ten – what was life like before The Great British Bake Off? If you can remember, you’re a better woman than I, because I find it almost impossible to recall a time before Mary Berry and her precision blow-dry, Paul Hollywood and those piercing blue eyes (number one cause of his marital breakdown, I’d say), and John Whaite, the 2012 winner and my particular favourite, for his lush hair as much as for his baking.
The hair is wonderfully coiffed for the front cover shot of his new book, John Whaite Bakes, and I don’t feel it’s too weird to mention the fact when he’s on the other end of the phone, though an earwigging colleague points out later that commenting on a young male interviewee’s hair is verging on The Cougar. I think she’s jealous.
Whaite is a sweetie, too early in his career in the spotlight, or probably just too nice, to be all Diva-like. He’s chatty, open, a bit guileless for someone who could find himself turned over anytime by tabloid hacks who just love to build you up to knock you down, but perhaps not, because as I say, he’s lovely, so who’d want to be nasty back?
Anyway, for now he’s the darling of tabloid and broadsheet alike; and what’s not to like about this sweet, Manchester lad, who loves his mum and talks fondly of a childhood spent learning to bake with her, finding solace in cooking after his parents split when he was five, and continuing to find therapy in the preparation of food through a life which is at times blighted by depression. As I say, perhaps he’s too open, but there is something beguiling about his honesty.
Of his well-documented depressive episodes, he says, “oh yeah, I’m a mess!” (he’s laughing) “but you know, cooking is a therapeutic process; a great way to express your feelings, weighing out the ingredients with your thoughts. Mind you, I’m also greedy, so it’s not just the process of cooking, I do like to eat!” Ah yes, his relationship with food; The Daily Mail claims he was once 18 stone, though he says he was actually16.5 stone at his heaviest (“and SO fat!”). He’s skinny as a rake now, though (“well now I wrap myself in cling film every night, ha, ha!”)
In reality, he says, he’s pretty useless at grooming, regular telly appearances or no. “I go out and buy lovely products, use them once, and then forget about them, but then I’m not Kim Kardashian; people don’t expect a baker to look that great, do they?”
Since winning The Great British Bake Off, John has written his first baking book, John Whaite Bakes: Recipes for Every Day and Every Mood, and he’s currently writing his second. He is also studying towards a Patisserie Diploma at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu in London, he takes part in regular demonstrations, talks and classes around the country, he runs workshops, he’s on the telly a lot, he blogs, he’s doing a book tour, which is what brings him to the North East in July, and he’s big on Twitter and Facebook, which as any social media tart will tell you, can be a full time job in itself.
The day before we speak, he has put out Twitter appeals for places to lunch, cocktail, and dine in London because his family is down from the North West visiting him, which is rather nice, I think. He and his partner Paul, a graphic designer, only moved down there in January, basically because John is so in demand now. They’re lodging with a friend’s mum in Greenwich, which is lovely, he says, “and my friend’s mum lets me take over her kitchen, which is so nice”.
He says he’s a workaholic, which is presumably how, during the filming for Bake Off, he completed his law degree at Manchester University (with a First) and clinched a high-flying City job. He says he “must have been drunk” when he opted for the legal profession, “or maybe I was just doing what my parents expected. I don’t regret it though, I enjoyed my degree and I enjoyed my job; it was a fantastic opportunity. I’ve found my niche now though.” Born and bred in Manchester, he’s fashion conscious, funny, and a high achiever who originally got a place at Oxford University but jokes he left because they didn’t have an oven. He’s always had a keen interest in performance and he has acting qualifications with LAMDA and RADA and is an accomplished dancer, public speaker and model in addition to being a baker, cook and blogger (at www.johnwhaite.tumblr.com).
As mentioned, food and its preparation feeds his soul as well as his body, and his book documents recipes to fit various moods. It tells the reader: “John Whaite Bakes. He always has. Whether he is happy or sad, in love or heartbroken, on his own or with friends, he believes that whipping up his favourite dishes provides nourishment for both the body and the soul.” To stand out among his siblings and step-sibs as a child, he would make his microwavable green sponge (“weird, but it was my party piece”). He began making cakes, gingerbread men – the usual fayre for young cooks who often get bored and leave mum to it half way through the process, returning only to lick the bowl – but he kept at it. “My mum remains the best cook of the two of us though,” he says, and he cites her meat and potato pie as the signature dish of his childhood and his choice for his last meal on earth.
There is a chapter in the book called Seeking Sweet Solace, for lifting the mood with food. His recipes include A Giant Hug in a Barley-filled Bowl, The Lone Wolf’s Baked Eggs (“for times when you’re feeling a bit down in the dumps”) and Plait of Worries Loaf.
Cooking, he says, has been a comfort blanket since he was a little boy, but there are also recipes in the book for every day and every mood, from times of loneliness, to nostalgia, and at the end a party chapter devoted to happy hours, cocktails and canapés.
His second book will focus on cooking for occasions, so that, he says, he can write about Christmas. “I could do Christmas every day, I love it so much. I’ll draw the curtains in mid-summer and watch a Christmas movie.” His signature seasonal dish is his Boxing Day croissants – stuff croissant dough with turkey, cranberry and stuffing and bake – “simple, and amazing!” he says.
The fact that he looks about 12 doesn’t guarantee trust for his recipes, but I can vouch for the fact that they are, in my experience, fool-proof, and what’s good for Mary Berry has to be good for the rest of us, surely? Mind, he’s fallible – among his most memorable moments on the show was almost slicing off his finger when he put it into a food processor (which was whizzing at the time) to check how his dough was doing. There was lots of blood and he had to miss the rest of the day. It is my fantasy that Mary – everyone’s mother hen – nursed him back to full culinary health.
He has a lovely way about him, and he does a good line in off-beat culinary experiences, for example, the online JWB Book Club, where you cook something from the book, then log on at the appointed hour to talk about it. Sounds like a date. He’s not as soft as he looks, either – remember the high flying City job – and he runs corporate cookery days, marketed on his website thus: “John may look like a mild-mannered baker, but he has learned the fundamental skills of business. During the highly intense and pressured filming for the Great British Bake Off, John was able to organise his time efficiently enough to gain a first-class law degree. He demonstrated enough ability to wow the judges of the BBC competition, which he went on to win. He then secured a job as an asset financier for the Lombard Asset Finance, but John went on to follow his ultimate dream and wrote his first recipe book…John does not pride these successes on a selfless, introverted attitude; he believes that it is down to his ability to communicate, organise and influence others.”
He describes the experience of being on GBBO as “a lovely time with lovely people and none of the nastiness you get on some other reality shows”, but adds that it was also “an intense and very competitive experience”.
Beloved, as mentioned, by all sectors of society, or so it seems, he is as comfortable on safe, mainstream telly as he is as a food columnist for the celebrity gossip bible Heat (they call him ‘Hot John’, which he thinks is hilarious). Search on Twitter and there is a photo of him, topless apart from a dickie bow, Chippendale-style. The picture prompted much Twitter praise from fans male and female; John just laughs when I say that perhaps he might have to become more media savvy. “No, it was just fun. I was working in a café and they asked me to do it for a ladies evening. It was fun. I can’t take myself too seriously.” The day we speak, he’s been on ITV’s This Morning making a spinach and potato pithivier. And when he’s not on telly, making personal appearances, being a celeb and such like, what does he do? “I cook. I don’t have a life outside food! Seriously, I’m the luckiest man alive.”
John Whaite is at Vallum Farm near Newcastle on July 31 to introduce his new book, JOHN WHAITE BAKES: RECIPES FOR EVERY DAY AND EVERY MOOD published by Headline priced £20.
The evening event, hosted by Forum Books, Corbridge, includes In Conversation with John, book signing, food by David Kennedy, and a licensed bar. Tickets are available from Forum Books, Market Place, Corbridge, NE45 5AW, tel 01434 632 931 www.forumbooks.co.uk; and Vallum Farm, East Wallhouses, Newcastle, NE18 0LL, tel 01434 672 652, www.vallumfarm.co.uk
