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The Chronicles of Nadiya, plus 10 inspiring things Nadiya Hussain has done since winning Bake Off
It was hailed as one of the most moving finales of all time (we even saw Mary Berry shed a tear or two). But Nadiya's emotional victory in the 2015 Bake Off tent was just the beginning.
Here are some of the many inspiring things she's done since.
1. Written a cook book
Despite making her name with sweet treats in the Bake off tent, Nadiya took a risky move when she published her first cookery book: a large proportion of the Asian-inspired recipes in 2016's Nadiya's Kitchen are savoury...and don't involve any baking.
The Bake Off winner is also turning her hand to fiction: it was announced in April 2017 that she's signed a three-book deal with publisher Harlequin, with the first of her novels set to be published in 2017.
2. Written a children’s cook book
Bake Me A Story, due to be published on September 8, blends updated versions of fairytales (poor "Sleepless Beauty" just needs a nice cup of cardamom-infused hot chocolate to break her curse; resourceful Jack wins the giant over with yummy bean patties) with colourful illustrations and child-friendly recipes, both sweet and savoury. The book is dedicated to Nadiya's three children, Musa, Dawud and Maryam, features photographs of them throughout, and is generally rather lovely (we were lucky enough to get our hands on an advance copy).
3. Spoken out about her experiences with racism
In a world where negative stereotypes about Muslims are regularly perpetuated by the media, and where Islamophobia is rife, Nadiya's popularity with the British public has been hailed as a reassuring ray of positivity.
But the Bake Off winner recently admitted that, like many young people from different religious or cultural backgrounds, she's experienced her fair share of racism.
"I've had things thrown at me and [been] pushed and shoved," she told Radio 4's Desert Island Discs earlier this month.
"I feel like that's just become a part of my life now. I expect it. Absolutely I expect it. I expect to be shoved or pushed or verbally abused because that happens. It's been happening for years."
Her comments about how she had come to "expect" racism highlighted just how horrifically ingrained such experiences can become. But she also displayed moving resilience, and a determination to focus on the positive.
"I don't retaliate. I feel like there's a dignity in silence, and I feel that if I retaliate to negativity with negativity then we've evened out," she explained. "And I don't need to even that out, because if somebody's being negative I need to be the better person."
"I don't want my children to have a negative attitude to living in the UK. Yes there are those negative people but they're the minority."
4. Landed her own TV show
New two part series The Chronicles of Nadiya starts tonight on BBC One, and will follow the Bake Off winner as she travels to Bangladesh, where her parents were born and where large parts of her extended family still reside. Part cookery show, part travel diary, Chronicles will see Nadiya travel to her family's village and cook for a relative's wedding feast.
In an interview with the Radio Times, the Bake Off winner turned TV star said that the show reminded her that food isn't just fuel: it should be emotionally nourishing too.
“When I was young, my dad wouldn’t eat anything unless his relatives were eating with him," she said. "That’s something that I’ve learnt again in Bangladesh. Every time I turned up with the crew, somebody had something to offer. Food is so much more than sustenance. Food is love.”
5. Became a magazine columnist
In 2015, Nadiya was announced as a new cookery writer for The Times Magazine, complete with her own column.
She's now writes for the publication on a weekly basis, sharing recipes and food-related musings (her latest is on why it's high time we had a "swiss roll revival").
6. Reunited with the woman who taught her to love pastry
Nadiya grew up with a passion for cooking: her mother would regularly prepare home-cooked meals to feed her large family, and her father owned a restaurant. But, she later recalled in interviews, desserts were never a big part of her childhood.
Instead, she says, it was her secondary school home economics teacher Jean Marshall who got her “hooked” on baking, sparking a passion for traditional British puddings and sponges.
“We never baked in our family, dessert isn't something that we ever had, and not something that's common in our culture,” she said during an interview on ITV’s This Morning. “'It was only when I did food studies for GCSEs that I started baking. I just got hooked.”
“During lunch breaks, rather than having my lunch in the lunch hall, I used to go in and watch her [Mrs Marshall] prepare for her class. I would sit and watch her and I learnt off her.”
7. Baked for the Queen
Nadiya later admitted that she was "shaking with nerves" after being asked to bake a cake for the Queen's 90th birthday. Nonetheless, she managed to rise to the occasion, producing a monstrous three-tiered orange drizzle cake, filled with orange buttercream and marmalade and decorated with gold and purple icing.
The finished creation met with a mixed reaction from the public (some people criticised it for being "wonky"), but there were no complains from its intended recipient.
“I thought meeting Lenny Henry was going to be the pinnacle of my career," Nadiya later told The Sun.
“Then I got the phone call asking me to make the Queen’s birthday cake. When she saw it she asked what kind of cake it was and which tier she should cut. Then Prince Philip came over and she introduced me to him. I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s the Queen introducing me’.
“She said, ‘This is the young lady who won the bake off’.
“And he said, ‘Yes dear, I know who she is, but what flavour is the cake?’.”
8. Been named one of the most influential people in Britain
After her Bake Off victory in 2015, Nadiya found herself featured in the annual Debrett's list of the 500 most influential people in Britain.
"I was slightly shocked by that but felt really, really proud," she told Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, when asked about how her inclusion on the list made her feel.
"I've spent most of my adult existence trying to raise good children and just being a good role model for them, and it's suddenly become so much more than that.
"I feel like if I continue to be a good role model for my kids, that's what's really important because I feel like that will resonate with everyone."
9. Worn a poppy hijab for Remembrance Sunday
Last November, Nadiya chose to show her support for Armistice Day by wearing a headscarf emblazoned with poppies, sharing it on Twitter with the message: “Here’s why #PoppyAppeal can bring us together.”
The "poppy hijab" in question, designed by British Muslim and London College of Fashion student Tabinda-Kauser Ishaq, was intended to encourage British Muslims to support the annual Poppy Appeal, and to simultaneously commemorate the Muslim soldiers who gave their lives in the First World War.
Perhaps its crucial message was that "British" and Muslim" are not (or shouldn't be) contradictory terms. Nadiya's decision to wear the scarf helped hammer home this important truth.
The Bake Off winner also endeared herself to fans after admitting to The Times that she originally decided to wear the head-covering, at the age of 14, after suffering a bad haircut (courtesy of her father).
10. Helped put Milton Keynes on the map
Many of us dream of relocating somewhere a bit sunnier, and/or a bit more scenic. But during her time in the Bake Off tent, Nadiya, was apparently fantasising about Milton Keynes, a Buckinghamshire town known primarily for having lots of roundabouts.
"When I entered the show my husband said if I won we'd put the house up for sale," she told The Sun, ahead of the move. "So we did it that same day. Now we're moving to Milton Keynes. I'll be closer to my family who can help look after the children."
11. Announced that she's getting 'remarried'
Nadiya's husband Abdal has become something of an internet sensation in his own right, praised for his "hunky" looks after his appearance in the Bake Off finale.
"I believe he's what you'd call a dreamboat, that's what it says in the papers," Nadiya said in a 2015 interview with Hello Magazine."Or 'the Hottie with the Cappuccino Skin!' That's what I call him now."
"It's not all that surprising though because he is lovely and quite handsome."
Sadly, despite her current happiness, Nadiya's wedding to Abdal was not a joyous occasion. The marriage was arranged by their families, and she had only met her husband-to-be once before.
“I have to say my wedding day was one of the worst days of my life,” she revealed (via The Mirror). “One of the unspoken rules is as a bride you have to behave submissively and look downcast.
“I was an emotional wreck and I cried through the whole thing. I didn’t smile very much. You are literally on show and it’s something I was always really uncomfortable with. The bride will often keep her head down. I never really understood it. It’s bizarre a bride is unhappy on her wedding day when really she should be happy.”
To make up for the shaky start, Nadiya is now planning to remarry her "dreamboat".
“We’re married Islamically but we’ve never done the proper vows here," she said in June.“So we’re talking about making it all ‘official’. It’s a great excuse for a party.”