Nigella Lawson nearly killed Salman Rushdie, which led to MI5 agents bursting into her kitchen.
Nigella Lawson's kitchen nightmare led to MI5 ambush
The 61-year-old TV chef is a long-time friend of 74-year-old novelist, who, at the time of the incident, was forced into hiding after some religious leaders were less than impressed with the content of his book 'The Satanic Verses'.
Nigella offered to cook for him at her house, and to do so agents of national security unit Special Branch had to wait for him in her bedroom.
She said: "I’ve known Salman since I was 23, and when he had to go into hiding he came to have dinner with me when I lived in a very little flat. Special Branch, who were protecting him, had to go and sit in my bedroom and wait there. When I was cooking, something went wrong with my oven and it kind of blew up, and I ended up looking like [accident-prone comic actress] Lucille Ball.
"I had black-brown cheeks and Special Branch thought there had been some sort of assassination attempt on him in my house."
The 'At My Table' presenter went on to explain how the kitchen explosion led to an intrusion from the agents, who worried there had been an assassination attempt.
Speaking live at her event 'An Evening with Nigella Lawson', she said: "They all then stormed into the kitchen in an instant, so that probably is one of the worst blunders."
She also quipped: "The lamb was ruined.”
At the same event, the star also dished up opinions on the term "guilty pleasure" when describing food, and called to ban the phrase entirely.
She said: "Food is a wonderful source of joy in life and I feel very strongly about it.
"If I could ban any phrase, it would without doubt be that overused, viscerally irritating and far-from-innocent term itself, the guilty pleasure.
"It’s not what you want to hear, and I think the same thing about food. If you persecute yourself for taking pleasure in eating, it’s not only incredibly counter-productive, it means you don’t even get the pleasure in the first place.”
Tagged in Lucille Ball Salman Rushdie Nigella Lawson