Quotes from Mary Berry

Some of my fondest memories are holidays by the seaside.

The biscuit tin shouldn't be handy - move it about a bit. Try to keep it out of the way.

I was brought up to believe that it's family first. Of all the people my parents knew, the family was most important. You always turn to your family, and the family supports you. We do what we can to support our young and go and see the grandchildren if they're doing plays at school and their sports events.

Family life is fragmenting in this modern age, but it's up to all of us to keep it together.

I never fry a doughnut! If you want a doughnut, go and buy one once in a blue moon. It's about everything in moderation.

I mainly cook British food with a few things I've had on my holidays. I went to the Canary Islands a few years ago, and we had all sorts of different mushrooms on brioche with pancetta on top, and it was delicious. I had it most days for lunch, so I thought, 'I'll do that when I get back,' and now it's in my cookbook, an absolute favourite.

Dad thought something very fishy was going on when, at 22, I was offered a job for £1,000 a year - more than Dad paid his own staff - for inventing cheese recipes and writing leaflets at the Dutch Dairy Bureau in London.

I admire my fellow judge Paul Hollywood enormously, though we often argue. He believes presentation and uniformity are paramount; I'm more interested in taste. I don't mind if one bun is smaller than the others, or if there's a little pastry cracking, though I don't want a soggy bottom.

Our aim is to get people to enjoy 'Bake Off' at home and for our bakers to enjoy what they are doing. We don't want to catch them out. It's a very happy occasion, and it's about encouraging people to bake at home.

As I was growing up, all meals, including breakfast, were family occasions, and you all sat down to eat together - and you had to finish everything as well.

I'm just very grateful that the media has been so kind to me, because there's nothing unusual about me. I'm just a mum and a granny who is teaching cookery on TV. Basically, I'm very ordinary.

I have no desire to be a centenarian. I think 90 is a great time. You've had a good innings. You have to deal with the cards that have been dealt, of course, but I don't think very old age, if you haven't got your marbles, can be very nice.

If you are buying a larger turkey than usual, make sure it will fit in the oven.

I never leave anything until the morning. I put my jumpers, scarves, and shoes out the night before. You never know what is going to happen. You don't want to get stressed.

My parents were very strict about manners and being polite to others. I brought my own children up that way, too.

I won't do 'Strictly' or any of those ghastly reality programmes. 'I'm a Celebrity' would be the end. It makes me shudder.

I hope that I dress for my age. Because there's no need to be dowdy, is there? But I don't go with all the colours that everybody is wearing. I'm not very fond of lime green or orange, so I don't do that. I read all the fashion magazines, but most things are totally unsuitable for somebody of 79.

I'm really boring. I think about cooking all the time. I have a little book, so when I go out or see something, I jot it down and try to include it in a recipe or do a variation of it. I even have a notepad by my bed, which is usually saying we're running out of mango chutney.

Reluctant as I am to regard myself as a style icon, I would love to think I could inspire older women to make the most of themselves.

I know people think I invented the Victoria sandwich, but I'm really not that old.

Oh, I'd never put my elbows on the table.

I've always collected vintage kitchenalia because it's beautifully made, and I love to see things that have been used down the ages.

'The Great British Bake Off' is family entertainment. There aren't many programmes where all ages can sit and watch from beginning to end. Everything else is violent, cruel, and noisy. We're educational without viewers realising it.