Who is the Bake Off judge Prue Leith and how long has she co-hosted the C4 baking show?

PRUE Leith is back on our TV screens to deliver her quick-witted critiques on The Great British Bake Off. Co-hosts Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding are ready to welcome a dozen new contestants to the 15th series of Channel 4's famous British baking competition. Prue Leith is a restaurateur, cookery writer and television presenter.

She was born in South Africa on February 18, 1940. Prue said she was inspired to cook by a woman she worked for as an au pair in France. The budding chef then decided to learn to cook at the Cordon Bleu in London.

Prue's long career has involved running her own business, books and obviously her TV work. She is thought to have earned three times more than Mary Berry when she took over her position on the revamped Great British Bake Off in 2017. The veteran telly cook was said to have signed a deal with Channel 4 worth around £200,000 per series .

It dwarfs the £70,000 both Mary and co-judge Paul Hollywood commanded for the show under the BBC. The savvy TV personality is no stranger to a lucrative deal. When she sold off her food interests in 1995, her culinary group’s turnover was £15million, according to Spears.

Despite taking a break from the summer show in March , she returns with Paul Hollywood to judge the contestants alongside bubbly co-hosts, Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding . Starting her career catering for high-class business lunches, Prue worked her way up to opening her own restaurant, Leith's, that was eventually awarded a Michelin .