As bakers go, Lorraine Pascale doesn't really fit the mould. She was a model from the age of 16, having been spotted at boarding school in Devon, later working alongside Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, and becoming the face of campaigns for Donna Karan and Versace during the 90s. Even now, at 38 years old, she still has the kind of bone structure that leaves you in no doubt that she could still be a cover star, if only she hadn't become one of Britain's most popular food personalities.
Earlier this year, her first TV show, Baking Made Easy, was watched by more than 2 million people and the accompanying book was second only to Jamie Oliver's 30-Minute Meals in the bestseller lists. With her creative and accessible recipes – some of which she's created or adapted for Easter especially for OFM – home bakers have a new heroine.
But it almost didn't happen at all. After quitting modelling, Pascale tried her hand at all sorts of things – including a short spell as a car mechanic – before she "totally fell in love" with food while doing a diploma at Leith's cookery school. Then there was a particularly inspirational teacher, Yolande Stanley, at Thames Valley University, where Pascale studied culinary arts. "She would make us do this huge sculpture made of sugar, which is not really practical," she says. "But being creative with food in that way really affected the way I approached it." Pascale is now back attending Thames Valley University for a degree in culinary arts management. Why is she always studying? "Because it keeps me grounded," she says. "It keeps me learning, and sane."
Born to Caribbean parents, Pascale was placed in care aged three months, then adopted by a white family in Oxford. Having a daughter of her own, Ella, who's now a teenager, meant that the unforgiving hours of a professional kitchen weren't an option, although she did placements in some high-profile kitchens – from Tom Aikens to the Mandarin Oriental hotel – for the experience. But it was a stint at the Hummingbird Bakery that inspired her to focus on cakes. And in 2008 she began selling them to Selfridges, opening her first shop, Ella's Bakehouse, in Covent Garden a year later, when she made her first appearance in OFM.
Despite her rapid rise, Pascale is still a one-woman operation, sourcing her own ingredients and testing recipes herself. She "didn't go near the kitchen for two months" after finishing Baking Made Easy – which involved making up to 15 cakes a day – in order to stop herself becoming jaded, and because she "couldn't do any more washing up". How much of each cake did she eat? "A mouthful. Any more than that would have had consequences. I haven't been to the gym since February."
That's hard to believe, of course, looking at her. "It's funny," she says, "my approach to things have changed so much since I was a model." How? "Well, I weighed 58 kilos when I was modelling, and now I weigh 68. I eat normally and when I want. Not that I wasn't healthy before, but now I just love food too much."
