Anneka Rice

Aged 48

Food Heaven: Barbecued mackerel with salad and new potatoes, and bread and butter pudding with custard

Food Hell: Peeling potatoes

TV presenter Anneka Rice rose to fame as the jump suit clad presenter of Treasure Hunt and even more famously Challenge Anneka, and she cites her decision to take part in Hell’s Kitchen as the result of a family coup.

“When I mentioned Hell’s Kitchen and the training with Marco Pierre White to my kids they said ‘you’ve got to do it mum’. I’ve always had a real problem with it in my mind [cooking] because I have never really enjoyed it and just see it as something that has to be done. The kids reckon that Marco Pierre White might unleash some sort of passion in me for being in a kitchen. At the moment I just never cook if I can possibly help it – I would rather do the ironing, clean out a cupboard and sweep leaves up,” says Anneka.

Clearly very domesticated in every other respect, cooking seems to have passed Anneka by, even with a brother-in-law who is a chef, and she has never made a pudding in her life. She only ever cooks for family and close friends, and even then she hates doing it on her own.

“We like eating, but I just can’t bear the time preparing and I can’t bear the time cleaning up afterwards – I would rather eat at a restaurant. When I cook it’s all fresh meat, salads and vegetables, probably very good, healthy food but it’s not in any way exotic or interesting.”

“I am really hoping that without the pressure of clearing up and having to find time to go shopping and all that, that I might enjoy it – my kids are really banking on this!”

Anneka’s three son’s, Thomas 18, Josh, 17 and Sam, 9 are used to their mum’s rather ad hoc approach to cooking, and everything is used whole – skins and all.

“I never do peeling. My kids don’t know what mash is supposed to look like, we call it dirty mash obviously – my excuse is that the fibre is good! If I didn’t have children I would be quite happy just living off bits here and there.”

But it’s not for want of trying, as Anneka says she has often endeavoured to broaden her cooking horizons, but just loses interest very quickly. She describes herself as ‘awful’ and says that she doesn’t even know how to chop things properly.

“I’ll buy a Jamie Oliver cookery book and get really excited, do one recipe and then it goes back on the book shelf,” she says. “It’s the fact that as soon anything becomes complicated I lose interest, so everything I cook can literally be done in five minutes – we’ll eat mackerel on holiday and go out and catch them in a boat, bring them back, throw them on a barbecue and a salad, then it’s just done.”

As a true connoisseur of restaurant food, Anneka admires Marco greatly, and although she has never met him she is very conscious of his reputation.

“Everyone calls him the chef’s chef, and he’s the one that everyone started with. I like the idea that he gave it all in, as that is what I did with my career – I just threw in the towel and had a twelve year sabbatical. I like the way he did that and said ‘here, have your Michelin stars back I want to go and do something different for a while’.

“I think it is very inevitable that he will shout at me a lot because he will just see me chop something and probably send me home. I don’t think I will mind that, I think probably if he shouts at me he will be very well justified! I just hope he doesn’t think ‘why haven’t they got people who are real foodies?”

Being watched by cameras 24/7 doesn’t faze Anneka after years of challenges with crews following her for TV, but the mere thought of being trapped in a kitchen all day is yet to grow on her.

“For me the main problem will be being inside, I know that sounds a very unusual thing to say but for me I am a light person – I like the light and being outdoors. I am really not good in enclosed space. And coping with the heat will be hideous. As I say if I am cooking I can’t wait to get out of the cooking environment!”