Dame Prue Leith is a restaurateur, broadcaster, businesswoman, cookery writer and novelist who cemented her ‘national treasure’ status as a judge on The Great British Bake Off from 2017 to 2025. Before that, she judged The Great British Menu and appeared on numerous other cooking-related TV programmes.
The South African-born octogenarian is famed for her colourful wardobe, witty one-liners and constructive feedback to Bake Off contestants. She never shies from speaking her mind, but does so with disarming charm. Whether it’s a critique of a soggy-bottomed pie or her distinctive take on ageing and assisted dying, she lives up to her #TruePrue hashtag.
Leith’s services to food, broadcasting and charity were recognised in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours when she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Prue Leith was Chair of the RSA from 1995 to 1997. During her tenure, she helped bring the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square to life.
Her story begins in 1950s Paris, where Leith studied at the Sorbonne and developed a passion for cuisine. In 1960 she moved to London to attend the Cordon Bleu Cookery School, then began making high-quality business lunches from her bedsit. This grew into a catering company, then a catering college and eventually a Michelin-starred restaurant (Leith’s).
Beyond the kitchen, Leith broke barriers across British business. In 1980, she became the first woman appointed to the British Rail Board, tasked with overhauling its much-criticised catering services. She chaired the Restaurateurs Association (1990–1994) and the RSA (1995–1997), and was a director of housing association Places for People (1999–2003).
A determined networker, she has been a non-executive director of Safeway, Whitbread, Woolworths and the Halifax, led reviews into both school and hospital food, and was chancellor of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh (2017–2024).
“The fundamental point of the RSA is to plug the holes in society. Look at the problem and do something about it.”
As RSA chair, Leith spearheaded the successful campaign to transform the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square into a platform for revolving contemporary art installations. She also founded the charity Focus on Food (now part of the Soil Association), which promoted cooking on the school curriculum.
A regular visitor to the RSA, Leith remains a devoted supporter. She explained why in a recent interview celebrating 250 years of RSA House. “I was attracted because the fundamental point of the RSA is to plug the holes in society. Look at the problem and do something about it,” she said. Leith describes the RSA as a ‘think and do tank’.
A prolific writer of blogs, newspaper columns, cookery books, novels and memoirs, her latest publication is Being Old and Learning to Love It! – a candid look at the highs, lows and unexpected freedoms of growing older. This is described as ‘part memoir, part rant and part homespun philosophy’, and includes Leith’s call for a change in the law to allow assisted dying.
On 11 March, Leith returns to the Great Room at RSA House to discuss the ideas behind the book. This promises to be anything but a polite conversation about ‘ageing gracefully’. Expect instead the kind of no-nonsense honesty that only comes from someone who has truly lived life to the full.
Find out more about the Joy (and Reality) of Growing Older event.
