EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Bake Off judge Prue Leith will pocket a mouthwatering £400,000 from the sale of a British pasta business

  • Prue Leith to pocket £400k from her 0.7 per cent stake in Pasta Evangelists
  • Great British Bake Off judge understood to have paid less than £50k for her stake
  • Downton Abbey film set for a sequel as shooting due to start later this year

Mamma mia! Prue Leith might be known for her verdicts on Victoria sponges, but it’s Italian food that’s bringing in the dough.

I can reveal the Great British Bake Off judge will pocket a mouthwatering £400,000 from the sale of a British pasta business in which she was an early investor.

‘I own a stake — not a lot,’ Leith tells me. ‘I will make a little bit of money.’

Documents I’ve seen disclose that the amiable chef has a 0.7 per cent stake in Pasta Evangelists, which delivers fresh meals and sauces such as lobster and crab tortelloni, and pappardelle with slow-cooked beef shin ragu, for up to £13.

Leith is understood to have paid less than £50,000 for her stake.

The Great British Bake Off judge will pocket a mouthwatering £400,000 from the sale of a British pasta business in which she was an early investor

The Great British Bake Off judge will pocket a mouthwatering £400,000 from the sale of a British pasta business in which she was an early investor

Documents I’ve seen disclose that the amiable chef has a 0.7 per cent stake in Pasta Evangelists, which delivers fresh meals and sauces such as lobster and crab tortelloni, and pappardelle with slow-cooked beef shin ragu, for up to £13

Documents I’ve seen disclose that the amiable chef has a 0.7 per cent stake in Pasta Evangelists, which delivers fresh meals and sauces such as lobster and crab tortelloni, and pappardelle with slow-cooked beef shin ragu, for up to £13

Last month, I disclosed that she had sold her 17th-century manor house in the Cotswolds for a staggering £10 million. It represented a very tasty profit of £9.92 million, as she bought it 44 years ago with her first husband, author Rayne Kruger, for a reported £80,000.

In a move akin to selling coals to Newcastle, Pasta Evangelists was snapped up by Italian food giant Barilla for £40 million after thriving in lockdown.

Leith’s fellow television foody Giles Coren has a much smaller stake of 0.04 per cent, but he seems delighted.

‘Done. Sold — I’ve made millions and millions,’ he jokes. ‘I can retire to the Caribbean. It’s a good business, I own a tiny sliver.’

The business was set up just four years ago by former banker Alessandro Savelli and is chaired by James McArthur, former chief executive of Harrods.

The sale will be particularly satisfying for Leith, as she showed more business savvy than the so-called experts on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den.

In a move akin to selling coals to Newcastle, Pasta Evangelists was snapped up by Italian food giant Barilla for £40 million after thriving in lockdown

In a move akin to selling coals to Newcastle, Pasta Evangelists was snapped up by Italian food giant Barilla for £40 million after thriving in lockdown

When Savelli went on the business show in 2018 to seek investment, he left empty-handed. Former investment banker Jenny Campbell told him: ‘Where did you lose your marbles with this one? This is pasta la disaster and I’m out.’

Revenge is a dish best served al dente...

 

Move over Bridgerton! Downton Abbey is coming back.

Hugh Bonneville, who played the Earl of Grantham in the ITV costume drama, has revealed that a sequel to the hit 2019 film will begin shooting later this year, pandemic permitting. ‘The script’s in fine fettle,’ he says of Julian Fellowes’s screenplay.

‘I think it will be the absolute tonic that the world will need by the time it comes out, if indeed we can get to shoot it in 2021, which we’re hoping to.’ Dust off the bowler, Carson!

 

Still dressing the same way? Fashionista Trinny Woodall knows why.

‘Men keep dressing in the era they felt most sexually confident. That’s why you get guys who had “that” in the Seventies and the dressing’s now a bit dodgy.’ 

And it’s not just chaps. ‘You have women who got to a stage, probably in their 20s, and they’re like, “I’m there.” 

'And whatever make-up they took to, those things become really good friends. And then they become old friends.

'And then they become friends we should get rid of.’

 

The smart set's talking about... Delphi's bid for catwalk stardom 

Having auctioned off art worth millions, Sotheby’s boss Lord Dalmeny appreciates the power of beauty.

Now, I hear one of his own gems is attracting lots of interest. His daughter, Delphi Primrose, has been snapped up by top model agency Storm, which discovered Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne.

Turning 18 this year, Delphi is the third of Harry’s five children with his ex-wife, Caroline Daglish. ‘We are very much looking forward to developing Delphi’s career in modelling,’ a Storm bigwig tells me.

Turning 18 this year, Delphi is the third of Harry’s five children with his ex-wife, Caroline Daglish

Turning 18 this year, Delphi is the third of Harry’s five children with his ex-wife, Caroline Daglish

Delphi, who’s spending lockdown with her family at Dalmeny House near Edinburgh, need look no further than her own father when it comes to sartorial inspiration.

For an event in honour of the late Queen singer Freddie Mercury, Harry provoked much amusement by wearing a suit cut away at the back to reveal suspenders.

 

(Very) modern manners 

Britain’s Best Walks presenter Julia Bradbury is frustrated that some people are ‘mooching’ around outside during lockdown rather than taking a brisk stroll. 

‘I’ve seen lots of people wandering around, who clearly aren’t doing it because it’s a necessary thing,’ Bradbury says.

‘There’s lots of mooching, and we’re not meant to mooch, are we? There are lots of confusing rules, but don’t mooch is pretty clear.’ Surely, one man’s mooch is another’s march? 

 

Why Keeley is a fan of model roles 

Who says models can’t act? Keeley Hawes, who worked as a model and appeared in several Britpop music videos for the likes of Suede before finding fame as an actress, has leaped to the defence of the much-maligned trend of mannequins who turn to acting.

‘I was a model when I was 17,’ says Keeley, (pictured inset from that time), who has won plaudits for her performances in television hits such as The Durrells and Bodyguard.

‘I had invested a lot more of my life in acting than I had in modelling, though saying that, modelling has stood me in very good stead for being able to stand in front of a camera with confidence. Lots of models make brilliant actors.’

Keeley Hawes, who worked as a model and appeared in several Britpop music videos for the likes of Suede
Keeley Hawes leaped to the defence of the much-maligned trend of mannequins who turn to acting

Who says models can’t act? Keeley Hawes, who worked as a model and appeared in several Britpop music videos for the likes of Suede before finding fame as an actress, has leaped to the defence of the much-maligned trend of mannequins who turn to acting

And Keeley, 44, the daughter of a London black cab driver who grew up on a council estate, is fed up with being stereotyped as an Eliza Doolittle character who succeeded thanks to elocution lessons.

‘I’m not from the East End, so I never had a Cockney accent,’ she insists. ‘I didn’t have elocutions lessons either, which is another story that seems to have stuck.

‘I had speech and drama lessons. I don’t think I speak very differently than I did but I don’t know — you change, don’t you?’

 

The Queen is mourning another dear friend.

I hear Sarah Allendale died this week at the age of 92. The Queen was a childhood friend of her late husband, the 3rd Viscount Allendale, and attended their 1948 wedding. 

‘It’s been a sad time for Her Majesty, who has lost several friends over recent months,’ a courtier tells me.

The death of the Queen’s cousin and confidante Lady Elizabeth Anson in November was followed by the passing of one of the maids of honour at her coronation, Lady Moyra Campbell, and that of her friend Lady Vestey, Prince Harry’s godmother.

 

Why has venerable quiz Countdown, currently seeking a successor to Nick Hewer, never appointed a permanent female host?

‘That’s something to do with Channel 4,’ the show’s maths genius, Rachel Riley, tells me. ‘The two experts are women [Riley and lexicographer Susie Dent], which is a good thing.’

Why has venerable quiz Countdown, currently seeking a successor to Nick Hewer, never appointed a permanent female host?

Why has venerable quiz Countdown, currently seeking a successor to Nick Hewer, never appointed a permanent female host?

Perhaps Riley is ready to step up and front the programme? ‘I’ve been there 12 years, but I’m not giving up my numbers so easily. You’ll have to prise them out of my cold dead hand,’ she jokes.

 

Comedy is a deadly serious matter these days. I hear the BBC is now running a disclaimer before Blackadder warning: ‘Contains discriminatory language and content some viewers may find offensive.’

But scriptwriter Richard Curtis backs the move, telling me: ‘These are very old shows and, if they think that’s a good idea, I’ll support it.’

The disclaimer has been added before a 1983 episode in which Rowan Atkinson’s character, Edmund Blackadder, clashes with the Duke Of Argyll, who has just returned from the Crusades. Atkinson has not yet said if he approves of the move: he has previously defended the right to cause offence.

 

Lockdown has been a particularly painful time for Princess Margaret’s grandson Sam Chatto.

I hear the 24-year-old has split up with his long-term girlfriend, Sophie Pipe. The couple met at Edinburgh University and went to India after graduating to train as yoga teachers.

Old Etonian Sam now runs an online pottery shop, while Sophie, 24, works at the Royal Academy of Arts. ‘They were great together,’ says a friend. ‘But it ran its course.’

Lockdown has been a particularly painful time for Princess Margaret’s grandson Sam Chatto. I hear the 24-year-old has split up with his long-term girlfriend, Sophie Pipe. The couple met at Edinburgh University and went to India after graduating to train as yoga teachers.

Lockdown has been a particularly painful time for Princess Margaret’s grandson Sam Chatto. I hear the 24-year-old has split up with his long-term girlfriend, Sophie Pipe. The couple met at Edinburgh University and went to India after graduating to train as yoga teachers.

Old Etonian Sam now runs an online pottery shop, while Sophie, 24, works at the Royal Academy of Arts. ‘They were great together,’ says a friend. ‘But it ran its course.’

Old Etonian Sam now runs an online pottery shop, while Sophie, 24, works at the Royal Academy of Arts. ‘They were great together,’ says a friend. ‘But it ran its course.’

Lady Sarah Chatto’s other son, Arthur, 21, and his girlfriend, Lizzie Friend, would often join Sam and Sophie on holiday. Now, Sophie has posed for this picture, right, of her sitting on the shoulders of another pal.

 

Fergie has been warned to cut down on sex. The son of ‘Queen of Romance’ Barbara Cartland backs Sarah, Duchess of York’s new career as an author of Mills & Boon novels, but is worried about how racy they’ll be.

‘The average Mills & Boon reader, I’d imagine, doesn’t want to have too much sex,’ Ian McCorquodale tells me.

Cartland was Princess Diana’s step-grandmother and met Fergie several times. ‘Maybe she was an inspiration to Sarah to write romance,’ says McCorquodale. But what would his mother have made of Fergie’s project? ‘She wasn’t that keen on her rivals.

‘She didn’t get on too well with them. But otherwise she’d have been very pleased — the more romance the better in these gloomy times.’

His mother’s books are still selling like well to readers turned off by the racy nature of today’s Mills&Boon, he claims.

‘They were raunchy, going a little too far. That’s perhaps why they’re leaving Mills & Boon and coming back to Barbara Cartland, where there’s no sex, but lots of innuendo.’