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Nadiya’s Family Favourites: Bake Off was just the start — Nadiya is Eliza Doolittle for a new generation

Polished: since winning GBBO, Nadiya Hussain has grown more confident: BBC/Hungry Gap Productions Ltd/Danny Rohrer
Polished: since winning GBBO, Nadiya Hussain has grown more confident: BBC/Hungry Gap Productions Ltd/Danny Rohrer

Is Nadiya Hussain the greatest culinary talent to emerge from British TV sensation The Great British Bake Off? Probably not.

But that’s why she’s the perfect alumna of the former BBC ratings winner to continue its legacy now that it has jumped ship to Channel 4.

A young, Muslim woman with a supportive, photogenic family, she is the ideal poster girl as the corporation finds its place in multicultural Britain.

But she has proved she is far more than a box-ticker: she is also a charming, engaging talent for a new generation of cooks.

On screen: Nadiya Hussain is back on BBC Two (BBC/Hungry Gap Productions Ltd/Danny Rohrer (Greyscale Films Ltd))
On screen: Nadiya Hussain is back on BBC Two (BBC/Hungry Gap Productions Ltd/Danny Rohrer (Greyscale Films Ltd))

During her tenure as a contestant on the sixth series of GBBO, which she eventually won, much of Hussain’s inspiration for a long list of fun and creative bakes were the dishes she whipped up at home for her husband and children.

So Nadiya’s Family Favourites (BBC2, 8pm) is a smart and organic choice to best show her skill: nothing is too complex — episode one provides how tos for a samosa pie, which looks delicious, cheese biscuits and a prawn saffron biryani.

All three are supposed to be useful for a family day out, and she has done an impressive job of taking on the theme in a new, individual way that most home cooks will be able to manage.

Her time since winning the programme has made her more confident in front of the camera and a more comfortable, polished cook, and it is a delight to watch her grow as a presenter. I only hope that the BBC, in nurturing her as a beloved new host, doesn’t forget why the country came to adore her ever since her first appearance.

Out and about: Nadiya Hussain with Gillian Francis (L), Amateur Cornish Pasty Champion and her mentor Edna Snell (BBC/Hungry Gap Productions Ltd/Danny Rohrer (Greyscale Films Ltd))
Out and about: Nadiya Hussain with Gillian Francis (L), Amateur Cornish Pasty Champion and her mentor Edna Snell (BBC/Hungry Gap Productions Ltd/Danny Rohrer (Greyscale Films Ltd))

When most TV cooks burst onto the scene, we know very little about them. So we can suspend our disbelief as Nigella wanders downstairs in her nightgown to nibble on one of her creations from the fridge, despite the fact that it was probably filmed at 4pm in a house that is certainly not the home of the Domestic Goddess. But we got to know Hussain across several nail-biting episodes, so we know this is not what her kitchen looked like. We know that the children’s drawings that adorn the fridge in the background were brought over that morning. Such artifice is a food-programme staple, but it does jar slightly in this case.

Perhaps it’s because Hussain was so earnest before — her facial expressions and one-liners made her a social media favourite whenever something went wrong in the Bake Off tent, and her inspirational words and professional achievements since have been accompanied by humility and a real sense that she can’t believe her own luck. So this new, polished image comes across as slightly, well, insincere.

Nevertheless, her warmth shines through, particularly when she ventures out of “her” kitchen to meet other home cooks and experts. Visiting a woman who teaches her how to make the perfect Cornish pasty, and a man who extols the virtues of rapeseed oil, Hussain is always interested, disarmingly funny and wide-eyed, eager to learn something new and visibly thrilled when she succeeds in a task.

In Hussain the BBC has found its new Eliza Doolittle, the plucky everywoman ripe for an uplifting transformation to TV’s upper echelons. The discovery has paid off: the programme is sweet, fun and informative and will continue to cement her status as a national treasure. But, as we learnt by the end of My Fair Lady, let’s not forget what made our heroine so special in the first place.

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