Prue Leith's Bold Call to Michelin Guide
Dame Prue Leith has shared the story of when she contacted the Michelin Guide editor to question why her restaurant had not been awarded a star.
Speaking at the Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye during a session titled My Life in Books, where guests discuss influential literature, the renowned restaurateur reflected on her past audacity with surprise.
"I finally rang up the Michelin Guide because I was indignant, I knew we were good enough,"
said the outgoing Great British Bake Off judge.
"Now I think, how could I have done that?"
Leith opened her first restaurant, Leith's, in Notting Hill, London, in 1969.
"My restaurant did eventually get a Michelin star but it took me 25 years,"she told the audience.
She recounted that after calling the Michelin Guide, she was unexpectedly connected to the editor.
"I said I wanted to know why we haven't got a star."
The Michelin Guide is internationally recognized for recommending restaurants and hotels, with its star rating symbolizing exceptional culinary quality.
The editor proposed visiting Leith's for lunch alongside an inspector to discuss the matter further.
"We sat down and it was fantastic,"Leith recalled, describing how the editor presented a detailed logbook documenting every visit and observation.
These records included subtle suggestions such as adjustments to salad dressings and noted inconsistencies like the bread basket containing seven types of bread on one occasion, then three, and only one on another.
"I was listening to this and thinking that was when we had a fantastic baker and then he left... and then the chef went on strike about making the bread,"she explained.
"They were absolutely right. We did all the things he told us and, the next year, we got a Michelin star."
Impact of Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential
Leith also discussed the influence of Anthony Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential on her perspective, particularly regarding misogyny in the hospitality sector.
"I'd always worked for myself. When I first started hiring people, I mostly hired women and I mostly hired friends. And it wasn't for a long time that I'd have large kitchens full of men,"she said.
"When I read Kitchen Confidential I couldn't recognise it, it wasn't the industry I knew. I was just horrified that was what was going on.
It blew the lid off the culture of bullying and sexual harassment. It was just thought of as funny and a joke."
Leith shared a personal experience about hiring a young man who quit after three weeks due to bullying related to his middle-class background.
"I [spoke to] the chef and he was horrified. He said 'of course we rib him, but it's only joking'. I said 'no, it's not'.
She then engaged with other restaurateurs about initiation rituals and the notion of 'toughening people up,' discovering these issues were widespread.
Leith also noted challenges in securing work placements for female students from her cookery schools.
She claimed on one occasion, a boss at London's Savoy Hotel told her he didn't want women in his kitchen because he believed they interfered with the cooking processes "at a certain time of the month".
"He was talking about witchcraft. This is not the 1500s, we are talking 1990."
Serving as head of the Restaurant Association of Great Britain (now UK Hospitality) in the early 1990s, Leith said she was ahead of her time in addressing inappropriate behaviour.
"I became extremely unpopular in telling members we had to change the culture in kitchens.
But a lot of people would secretly agree with me, and then publicly agree with me."
Books That Shaped Prue Leith
Leith also spoke about other books important to her, including Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Paul Gallico's children's book Snow Goose, which her father read to her and her brothers during childhood.
She described Snow Goose as a tear-jerker and a childhood favourite she recently shared with her husband, John Playfair.
"I'm quite tough. My mother used to call me hard-hearted honey because I don't cry easily. But my husband cries at anything."
Leith's appreciation for Austen began during a voyage to South Africa, where she grew up.
"My mother was a mad Jane Austen fan and we were travelling on one of those Union-Castle liners from Southampton to Capetown.
When we got off the ship I noticed my mother had a beautiful collection of Jane Austen's six novels.
Leather-bound, beautiful. I wanted to read one so she gave me Pride and Prejudice. I opened it and saw it had the Union-Castle library stamp in it.
I said 'mum did you steal this book?', and she said 'yes I did, but if you look in the stamp, it's now 1967 and it hasn't been taken out of the library since 1930 when it was put in. I felt so sorry for them, so I rescued them'.
I don't think I had any perception [of romance]. I didn't start lusting after boys until I was about 15, so I was a bit of a late starter.
Mr Darcy was socially terrible, but of course so sexy you couldn't resist him."
Referring to period dramas, Leith expressed her fondness for such stories.
"They are every good stories and they're addictive. I always long to have a Downton Abbey in the background of my life so when I'm tired... I can just plonk myself in front of the telly... and forget myself in a wonderful world.
Unfortunately, my husband is not as soppy as me."
