The One Fast Food Restaurant Paul Hollywood Has A 'Big Craving' For
Watching Paul Hollywood judge a particular bake on its texture, taste, and consistency on the "Great British Baking Show" and you'd expect that he has a refined palate. On the other hand, you might wonder how on Earth he and fellow judge Prue Leith can stomach all that sugar — especially during cake week. He actually comes from a "long line of bakers," according to his website. While he actually trained as a sculptor, he ended up going into the family business and became head baker at a variety of top UK restaurants, including Cliveden, The Chester Grosvenor, and The Dorchester. He's also traveled extensively to learn ancient baking techniques, but this doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy the simple pleasures of fast food.
During a Table Manners podcast, Hollywood admitted that he preferred savory foods over sweet, and that at the end of Cake Week, he will "go and suck on some salty chips because [he's] had this sweet overload," per Spotify. With all that sugar, it's understandable that he might be craving the exact opposite type of food.
Would you like salt with those fries?
"I crave salt," Paul Hollywood told the Radio Times in 2012 — a fact that he's repeated in subsequent interviews. Hollywood admitted to the Radio Times that he really enjoyed stopping for McDonald's (per The Huffington Post). He said that after filming the Christmas special one year, he took fellow judge Mary Berry to the local drive thru and ordered a "Big Mac [and] large fries" and offered to order something for her. Berry's tastes may be a little more fussy, since Hollywood didn't disclose if she ordered anything or not, just stating that she was "not impressed," per Metro.
His craving for simple savory foods, rather than the complex cakes and dainty pastries on the competition baking show, is so great that he would rather a bacon sandwich on "sliced white bread with a mug of tea," per Daily Mail. He did confess, however, that while his taste in fast food wasn't particular, he couldn't stomach watching other baking shows, because his own ideas for the competition format were quite rigid.