I would rather have more flesh and eat more food'

Queen of the TV kitchen for 25 years, Nigella Lawson talks about the pleasures of good cooking, her conversion to the air fryer and why you can't beat a good crisp

- MARC BAKER

She is the undisputed queen of the kitchen, cooking up delicious dishes both savoury and sweet, but Nigella Lawson insists she doesn't pay any thought to putting on weight because of what she eats.

"My mum had a problematic relationship with food and I did think, 'I don't want to be like that.' I would rather have more flesh and eat more food," she says.

However, Nigella, 64, does admit that the issue around body image and weight was "hard to resist".

"The real truth is you have to work out what matters to you in life and what matters to me is eating. It is the way I celebrate life," says the London-born mum-of-two in conversation with food critic Jay Rayner at the Barbican in London.

"If I did not make every meal something that I really want to take pleasure in I think I would feel overwhelmed with lassitude, slight depression and disconnection.

"I don't have a particularly fancy palette I love all sorts of foods - and I don't really want restaurant fine dining.

"I adore restaurants and I am inspired by chefs but I don't want to cook like one. I love stirring a pot!" With three million followers on Instagram and more than two million on Facebook, cook, author, journalist and TV presenter Nigella has been at the top of her professional game for decades. Her first cookery book, How To Eat, was published in 1998 and became an instant bestseller. Two years later, her second, How To Be A Domestic Goddess, won the British Book Award Author of the Year accolade.

Since then, she has sold more than eight million books worldwide, has hosted TV cookery shows in the UK and US and also launched her own range of cookware, Living Kitchen.

Yet her stellar career grew from very small beginnings.