Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith Reveal if U.S. Bakers are Better than Brits
Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith Reveal if U.S. Bakers are Better than Brits
Latoya GayleTue, May 26, 2026 at 10:51 AM UTC
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Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith
Credit: Roku Channel
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Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith discussed differences in American and British baking styles, including ingredient preferences and taste palates during a recent interview
Leith noted Americans tend to bake larger, sweeter cakes compared to British bakers' more modest creations
Season 4 of The Great American Baking Show premiered on The Roku Channel on May 11
Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith are revealing whether they prefer American or British baking styles.
Leith, 86, and Hollywood, 60, star on The Great American Baking Show, having also been judges on The Great British Baking Show, referred to as The Great British Bake Off in the U.K. They were quizzed about their preferences in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter (THR) published on May 22.
“[Americans] are not better, they're different,” said Hollywood in a clip from the interview shared on Instagram.
“They use a lot of whisked sponge, they use a lot of banana, they use a lot of pecans,” he continued. “They use things that we use in the U.K., but not to the extremity [that] the Americans do. That's the big difference. Their taste palette is a bit different from ours, but their baking is very similar.”
Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith
Credit: Roku
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Leith agreed, adding that aside from the quantity of each ingredient, the overall size of cakes also differs between bakers in each country.
“I think that Americans, by and large, like things to be sweeter than the Brits, and bigger. Big and sweet,” she told THR.
As the interview took place during filming in the summer of 2025, Leith also shared an observation that she made that day.
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“It's been interesting today because we asked them to do a cake, which could have been a little cake, and they [all made] enormous cakes — you know, four-tier jobs,” she told THR.
The latest season of The Great American Baking Show premiered on The Roku Channel on May 11.
Around the same time, Leith — who stepped down as a judge on The Great British Baking Showearlier this year — spoke to PEOPLE about blunders she's had in the kitchen.
She revealed that, despite being known as a chef and restaurateur, not everything went to plan when she had the opportunity to serve tea to Queen Elizabeth at the opening of the Queen Elizabeth Centre (QEII Centre) in Westminster, London, in 1986.
"I actually think there's something about the royal family, they jinx things," Leith told PEOPLE. "Because I think what happens is people get quite overexcited at the thought of them and then everything seems to go wrong. You talk to any caterer and they'll tell you drama stories about the royals."
Leith recalls another instance of messing up when cooking for royalty in her memoir Being Old and Learning to Love It!
She fumbled the Queen's order for strong black tea, instead presenting the monarch with a "weak lemony tea served by a half-wit.”
Reflecting on the incident, Leith said, "Personally, the thing that upset me most was not giving the Queen a decent cup of tea, because I much admired the Queen and I thought, 'Poor...woman. She's been walking around this extremely boring building for two hours… By the time she got to me, she must have been absolutely panting for a cup of tea, and I failed completely.' "
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
