'Racist trolls made my life hell' Lorraine Pascale may be TV's hottest chef, but she says she still gets vile abuse online - and has had to call in police
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When Lorraine Pascale was growing up in Oxfordshire, ‘the only black in the village’, her white adoptive mother would try to give her advice when she came home from school in tears after being bullied.
‘My mum used to say, “Be tough, be strong, and if you want to cry don’t cry in front of them. Don’t let them know they’ve got to you,”’ recalls Lorraine. It’s how she’s lived her rather extraordinary life ever since.
It’s a life that’s seen her given up by her Caribbean parents, adopted and then temporarily put into foster care, become a supermodel and then a car mechanic, before ending up as one of TV’s most popular cooks.
Viewers are beguiled by her warmth and charm, but there’s a steeliness there too, borne out of the many knocks life’s given her. She doesn’t experience racism so much nowadays, but that’s not to say it’s disappeared.
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Lorraine Pascale may be TV's hottest chef, but she says she still gets vile abuse online - and has had to call in police
‘I get hundreds of nasty messages on Twitter. I don’t tell people about them because I don’t think they want to hear “poor me”, but there have been a few that really affected me.’
She did ask the police to look at some of the tweets but so far there have been no prosecutions. ‘The difficult thing is that even when someone’s had their Twitter account closed, there’s little to stop them opening a new one.’
And it’s not just online that she’s encountered racism either. ‘I was in this pub and the landlord said to me, “All black people should go home, but you can stay because my wife likes your cakes.” He seemed to think that was an OK thing to say to me. It was so ridiculous it was almost funny. It was a crazy thing to say, so I just left,’ she sighs.
A bright girl, Lorraine won a boarding school scholarship before being ‘spotted’ at 16 by a modelling scout. She worked all over the world and became the first black British model to grace the cover of American Elle, but modelling has a short shelf life and as she approached her 30s she realised she had to find a new career.
She read a self-help book called What Colour Is Your Parachute? that suggested writing down everything you might like to make a career out of. ‘I like interiors, so I did a course on that. I love cars, so I took a job as a mechanic. Then I went to cookery school and loved it so I did a year-long course and then began a degree in Culinary Arts.’
A bright girl, Lorraine won a boarding school scholarship before being spotted at 16 by a modelling scout
She put her studies on hold to start her own bakery, Ella’s, named after her 17-year-old daughter, from a brief marriage to Polish musician Count Kaz Balinski-Jundzill, and finally got her degree two years ago.
It didn’t take long for TV to find her and in the past three years her BBC shows Home Cooking Made Easy, Baking Made Easy and Fast, Fresh & Easy Food have been huge ratings hits.
Now she’s branching out into talent show territory with a new programme on Sky Living, My Kitchen Rules.
Six pairs of amateur cooks from across Britain and Ireland are given a day to create an ‘instant restaurant’ in their home town and cook a three-course meal for the other five pairs, as well as Lorraine and Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton.
After each course the contestants are awarded marks by Lorraine, Jason and the other five couples. When each pair has hosted, the duo with the lowest score leaves and the rest move on to the tougher semi-final challenges.
While the focus is on the cooking, Lorraine says the fascinating thing is how the pressure affects those taking part. ‘There are tantrums, arguments and walkouts, and that’s just me and Jason,’ she laughs. ‘We did have a few contestants who ended up saying they didn’t want to cook with each other.
'The couples are interesting; there’s one married couple, only they’re not married to each other and you wonder what’s going on there. There are two neighbours with quite a caustic relationship, and two young girls, best friends, who produce the most brilliant food.’
And Lorraine and Jason didn’t always see eye to eye. ‘We have different ways of going about things, which can cause friction,’ she says. ‘He has a habit of saying, “You’re wrong” and he kept mentioning his Michelin stars. I’d be proud of them too, but I’ve written four books and been classically trained, so I stand my ground.’
It didn't take long for TV to find her and in the past three years her BBC shows Home Cooking Made Easy, Baking Made Easy and Fast, Fresh & Easy Food have been huge ratings hits
She says there’s a touch of Simon Cowell about her judging method. ‘People respect Simon because he’s honest and fair. If the viewer sees a mess on the plate and I’m saying it’s good, they’ll think I don’t know what I’m talking about. I did make a few people cry, but it’s important to be honest.’
Lorraine will present a show on fostering as well as a new cookery show for BBC2 later this year, but has ambitions to branch out of food.
Her recent split with boyfriend Ged Doherty, a music executive, has been attributed partly to her desire to work here while he wanted to move to America. But despite having looks and a career many people would die for, she’s open about the fact that she doesn’t have it all – or even do it all.
‘After a show I don’t want to cook so I buy ready meals,’ she confesses. ‘I’m a single mum who works hard. I love ready meals, especially supermarket own-brand ones.’ And with that she lets out a loud laugh. She’s a very different television chef – how refreshing.
Lorraine pictured on the catwalk in her modelling days
My Kitchen Rules will be shown later this month on Sky Living.
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