Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has made a stunning start as a judge in The Great British Bake Off.
The new Channel 4 series is now under way, with Nigella making a big impression on the contestants and the viewers.
Ms Lawson told the Radio Times that she had been nervous about her baking skills before the Channel 4 series began.
She said: "I was a bit worried because, well, you wouldn't mark me up for my polished finishes as a baker.
"I came to baking later in life, and because of that, it's something that intrigues and fascinates me.
"I've learnt by doing, and I'm a home baker, not a professional."
Gardens at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford where Nigella Lawson was a student (Image: Contributed)
The celebrity chef has strong Oxford connections as she was once a student at the Oxford University college Lady Margaret Hall.
Ms Lawson read modern languages, edited the student magazine Isis, later saving it from financial trouble, and graduated in 1979.
In 2018, she told an audience at the New Theatre how her time in the city influenced her and helped her to become the chef she is today.
She said: "I would go to the Covered Market a lot to buy onions and sausages. I cooked an awful lot. French onion soup was my speciality.”
She admitted that when she rented a room in Walton Crescent she “would go into people’s rooms and steal whatever liqueur or bits of cheese they had to go in the onion soup – Benedictine I had to use once.
"That’s when I realised I was someone who liked feeding people, which I enjoyed, although it wasn’t such an eating-out culture as it is now.”
The chef added at the time: "“There was a good Malaysian restaurant called Munchy Munchy near the station I remember and The Elizabeth was the expensive place, always full of Iranian princes trying to take you out in their sports cars.”
“When I first came here the Quat’ Saisons was a teeny little place in Summertown, so I was quite friendly with Raymond Blanc.
“Oxford was perpetually cold, so I ate anything with potatoes, anything starchy.”
A portrait of Ms Lawson was displayed at her college in 2018 to inspire students.
She is now following in the footsteps of Prue Leith and Mary Berry.
At a Channel 4 event earlier this year, she said: "I'm looking forward to being part of the gang. I'm so excited, but I'm daunted – I bake a lot and I've written a lot about baking, but I'm a ramshackle kind of a baker. I'm going to be thinking, 'My God, why am I judging them?'"
The Great British Bake Off has now been on air for more than 15 years.
Ms Lawson added: "I think why Bake Off really appeals to people in a deep emotional way – it's not just watching for entertainment, although of course there is that – is that for many people, especially more recently, there's a breakdown of a sense of community and connection between people and I think that Bake Off really celebrates that (sense of community)."