How Nadiya Hussain Became The Most Successful Great British Baking Show Winner
She's news bigger than the binned Baked Alaska. If you aren't yet talking about The Great British Bake Off's Nadiya Hussain you've clearly missed an episode or two. For American fans, that's the Great British Baking Show, and Hussain is the most successful winner of the bunch. The winner of the 2015 season recalled the experience on The Graham Norton Show – or rather forgot it (via Digital Spy). "I actually can't remember the moment I won," said the charming and humble baker. "All I remember is staring at my shoes and thinking that they needed to go in the washing machine because they were covered in icing sugar. I really didn't think I would get to the final, let alone win."
But before you knew it, Chef Nadiya was back on our screens with the foodie hit The Chronicles of Nadiya, a documentary in Bangladesh. A huge hit, the chronicles helped show life from Hussain's perspective as a young woman of faith and color (via Digital Spy). She addressed timely issues in her 2016 debut that hit home for many. One fan remarked (via Twitter), "#chroniclesofnadiya is a quality show from a great character, an important show in light of how important representation is in todays media."
A woman of character and entirely watchable, and we haven't even got back to the "sweetest" part yet: her food.
We all want to bake with Nadiya
After her first cookbook, Nadiya's Kitchen, Hussain's second cookbook, Nadiya's British Food Adventure, was published in connection with her "first ever cookery series for BBC2" (via Nadiya Hussain's website). She has also written two children's cookbooks, Nadiya's Bake Me a Story and Nadiya's Bake me a Festive Story, and works of fiction in addition to a weekly column for the Times. The mother of three baked a 90th birthday cake for Queen Elizabeth II herself and has had over 115 television appearances. She is ranked 91/100 on success when compared to other Bake Off contestants by money.co.uk (via Mirror UK).
And if you've missed any of that, you can head on over to Netflix right now and watch her in the U.S. on Nadiya Bakes (via Vanity). If critics were happy before, an entirely new audience is drooling over Hussain's hybrid food and cultural flavors as well as her unapologetic embrace of who she is. Embarking on a journey that has been in parts based on authenticity, talent, and a little bit of luck, Hussain's engaging performance makes it easy to see why she's the most successful person from Bake Off. How far this journey may go has us as thrilled as finding out what happened to the nicked custard – only happier.