Nadiya Hussain, 36, grew up in Luton, one of six children in a British-Bangladeshi family. In 2015, she won the sixth series of The Great British Bake Off, a victory that catapulted her into a career of television presenting and cookbook writing. She lives in Milton Keynes with her husband, Abdal – whom she remarried in 2018, 14 years after their arranged marriage – and their three children: two sons, aged 15 and 14, and an 11-year-old daughter.
Best thing that’s happened this week?
It’s very exciting and very boring at the same time. There’s a new butcher that’s opened up near where I live in Milton Keynes, and it sells tripe. I don’t have a dog, so the tripe is for me, and I have a recipe for it. It’s yet to make it into a book, but it’s something I grew up eating. These are the bits of the animal that people don’t think about, but my grandad always said that if you’re going to kill an animal, don’t kill it in vain. Make the most of every part of it. And so we grew up eating offal: the lungs and the heart and all of that. It was cheap, and often it was free. My kids don’t like touching it, but they love eating it.
Best thing about growing up in Luton?
I don’t know if it was growing up in Luton or just growing up at that time, but what I loved was that it was always open-door. You could knock on anyone’s door for anyone’s kids, and they’d come out and we’d play on the streets. My own children don’t do that and have way too many distractions, but in Luton we had such a strong sense of community, and a lot of passing around of Tupperware. Our parents would send us kids to each other’s houses with something from the garden or something made in our kitchen or something picked up on a trip to Bangladesh. We were all connected, and that’s what I loved.
Best thing about winning Bake Off?
I didn’t notice until I watched it back, but Bake Off gave me my confidence. Something happened to me week-on-week that allowed me to grow. That was probably the best thing for me, apart from getting to feed Mary Berry cake. She’s the queen of cake and I got to provide it for her!
The funniest thing your children have said?
We’ve only had a television five years, so when my children were younger they didn’t have one, but really wanted one. I remember overhearing my son, who was eight at the time, telling his brother: “Don’t worry, when they’re dead we’ll get a television.”
