Nadiya Hussain is one very popular chef, that rose to fame by winning a cooking competition in Great Britain.
But how many things do we know about her? Let’s find out more about Nadiya Hussain!
- Her full name is Nadiya Jamir Hussain.
- She was born on 25th of December 1984.
- Hussain is a first-generation British Bangladeshi born.
- She was raised in Luton, Bedfordshire, where she attended Beech Hill Primary School, Challney High School and Luton Sixth Form College.
- She has five siblings, with three sisters and two brothers.
- Hussain’s Sylheti father, originating from Beanibazar, was a chef and owned an Indian restaurant.
- She started wearing a hijab at age 14.
- She did that in order to cover up her “bad hair more than anything else” because her father “cut it really badly.”
- As a teenager she was diagnosed with panic disorder and underwent cognitive behavioural therapy.
- She revealed her mental health battles in a Sport Relief film.
- She also tackled childhood anxiety in her book, My Monster and Me.
- She is a British TV chef, author, and television presenter.
- She rose to fame after winning the sixth series of BBC’s The Great British Bake Off in 2015.
- Since winning, she signed contracts with the BBC to host many programs.
- More specifically she presents the documentary The Chronicles of Nadiya, TV cookery series, Nadiya’s British Food Adventure and Nadiya’s Family Favourites, co-presented The Big Family Cooking Showdown, and has become a regular contributor on The One Show.
- In 2017, Hussain was named by Debrett’s as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK.
- She was also on BBC News’ 100 Women list.
- She was also shortlisted for Children’s Book of the Year prize at the British Book Awards for Bake Me A Story.
- She was nominated for Breakthrough star at the Royal Television Society Awards for The Chronicles of Nadiya.
- Ted Cantle, the author of a government report on community cohesion, said Hussain had done “more for British-Muslim relations than 10 years of government policy”
- Hussain learned basic cooking skills at school.
- Her mother never baked and used the oven for storage.
- She taught herself the rest from recipe books and watching videos on YouTube.
- Her favourite book is a baking-themed book by Irish novelist Marian Keyes
- At the time of The Great British Bake Off, Hussain was “a full-time Mum”
- She has two sons, Musa and Dawud, and a daughter, Maryam.
- Hussain’s birthday is on Christmas Day, and her daughter’s birthday is on Christmas Eve.
- More specifically she was living in Leeds with her husband, an IT specialist, and three children.
- And all of these while studying for an Open University degree in Childhood and Youth Studies.
- At the age of 20, Hussain married Abdal Hussain, whom she had only met once before, in an arranged marriage.
- They married in a traditional ceremony in Bangladesh. She has spoken about her earlier struggles in being in an arranged marriage, saying “It’s tough – you are pretty much marrying a complete stranger… We had to live through the good and the bad, and have come out the other side.”
- In December 2018, she and her husband married each other again.
- When she won the final they moved to Milton Keynes, nearer to London, so that she could pursue a culinary career.
- Hussain is Contributing Editor to UK’s biggest food media brand, BBC’s Good Food.
- Hussain also writes a monthly column for The Times Magazine, a part of the Saturday supplement of The Times.
- She was previously columnist for Essentials magazine.
- Hussain is ambassador for Starlight Children’s Foundation, which supports lives of seriously ill children.
- Hussain has shown her support for Armistice Day by wearing a ‘poppy headscarf’, designed to commemorate the number of Muslim soldiers who fought in World War One as well as promote the wearing of the poppy amongst British Muslims.
- In 2018, Hussain became a brand ambassador for Swarovski on a campaign focusing on female empowerment.
- She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting and the culinary arts.
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