Alan Carr used to live off takeaways before Dame Mary Berry helped him out.
Alan Carr used to live off takeaways before Dame Mary Berry helped him out
The 48-year-old TV star has teamed up with former 'Great British Bake Off' Mary, 89, for her new BBC Two show 'Mary Berry's Foolproof Dinners' and she has revealed that her first guest "didn't have much action going on" in the kitchen until she got involved.
She said: "I’d never met [Alan] before. I'd seen a glimpse of him on television, I thought he was crazy and fun, so I was really excited about meeting him. And we did have so much fun!
“He’d been away until the day before we filmed and when we went into the kitchen - there wasn't much action going on there. There was nothing in the cupboards or the fridge but I quickly realised this had nothing to do with Alan being away – he doesn’t generally cook. I said to him: ‘Well, how do you eat?’ and he told me, ‘It’s called takeaway, and it's delivered’. And he shouts through the letterbox, ‘Leave it outside’ and that's it."
The renowned chef also noted that Alan had a childhood full of homecooked food and that was "quite important" to him so she wanted to teach him the basics of rustling up something for himself.
She said: "Growing up, Alan’s mum cooked a lot, she was a good cook and food growing up was quite important to him. So, I wanted to teach him some new, simple, go-to recipes that he could manage.
“He loved the idea of having everything all in one tray. And that's exactly what we did, a quick beef chow mein, which he could make after a busy day at work."
'Mary Berry’s Foolproof Dinners' airsTuesdays from 29 October at 7.30pm on BBC Two and will be available on BBC iPlayer.
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