TV News Sophie Dahl: 'I came away a much better cook'

Former model-turned-food writer Sophie Dahl mixes stories and recipes for her new cookery show The Delicious Miss Dahl. Here she reveals the inspiration for the series...

Tell us about your new show, The Delicious Miss Dahl?
"This programme is a fusion of my two loves: storytelling and cooking. It is quite unusual to have references to poetry and Thirties literature in a cookery programme, but I hope people like it."

Each episode of the six-part series focuses on a mood. Why is that?
"That's very much how I cook and so it felt authentic. I would never like to be involved in something where it was written for me and I just read someone else's words. This was very much something I was attached to."

People will inevitably compare you to Nigella Lawson. What's your view on that?
"I do worship Nigella. But it saddens me that men can do things without being compared to other men while, with women, there’s always this competition. I have my own style of cooking."

Did you learn more about cooking through making the series?
"I definitely came away from it a much better cook because you have to be; there's no room for messing around. But I have no real training, I'm very much a home cook. And I'm sure there are infinitely more mothers and grandmothers out there who can cook better than I can."

What would your desert island food be?
"It would definitely be breakfast. I love breakfast so I'd have maybe a kedgeree, eggs Benedict or an Arnold Bennett omelette. But you'd feel sick if you had an Arnold Bennett everyday!"

Have you ever had any disasters in the kitchen?
"I was once trying to impress a boyfriend's friends with a dinner party, but I tried to do too much and it all went horribly wrong. I ended up drinking too much wine, sobbing in the kitchen and smoking out of the window!"

*The Delicious Miss Dahl starts on Tuesday, March 23 at 8.30pm on BBC Two*