Nadiya Hussain trivia | 40 facts about the famous chef

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!

1. Her full name is Nadiya Jamir Hussain^.
2. She was born on 25th of December 1984.
3. Hussain is a first-generation British Bangladeshi born.
4. She was raised in Luton, Bedfordshire, where she attended Beech Hill Primary School, Challney High School and Luton Sixth Form College.
5. She has five siblings, with three sisters and two brothers.
6. Hussain’s Sylheti father, originating from Beanibazar, was a chef and owned an Indian restaurant.
7. She started wearing a hijab at age 14.
8. She did that in order to cover up her “bad hair more than anything else” because her father “cut it really badly.”
9. As a teenager she was diagnosed with panic disorder and underwent cognitive behavioural therapy.
10. She revealed her mental health battles in a Sport Relief film^.
11. She also tackled childhood anxiety in her book, My Monster and Me.
12. She is a British TV chef, author, and television presenter.
13. She rose to fame after winning the sixth series of BBC’s The Great British Bake Off in 2015.
14. Since winning, she signed contracts with the BBC to host many programs.
15. 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.
16. In 2017, Hussain was named by Debrett’s as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK^.
17. She was also on BBC News’ 100 Women list.
18. She was also shortlisted for Children’s Book of the Year prize at the British Book Awards for Bake Me A Story.
19. She was nominated for Breakthrough star at the Royal Television Society Awards for The Chronicles of Nadiya.
20. 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”
21. Hussain learned basic cooking skills at school.
22. Her mother never baked and used the oven for storage.
23. She taught herself the rest from recipe books and watching videos on YouTube.
24. Her favourite book is a baking-themed book by Irish novelist Marian Keyes
25. At the time of The Great British Bake Off, Hussain was “a full-time Mum”
26. She has two sons, Musa and Dawud, and a daughter, Maryam.
27. Hussain’s birthday is on Christmas Day, and her daughter’s birthday is on Christmas Eve.
28. More specifically she was living in Leeds with her husband, an IT specialist, and three children.
29. And all of these while studying for an Open University degree in Childhood and Youth Studies.
30. At the age of 20, Hussain married Abdal Hussain, whom she had only met once before, in an arranged marriage.
31. 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.”
32. In December 2018, she and her husband married each other again.
33. When she won the final they moved to Milton Keynes, nearer to London, so that she could pursue a culinary career.
34. Hussain is Contributing Editor to UK’s biggest food media brand, BBC’s Good Food.
35. Hussain also writes a monthly column for The Times Magazine, a part of the Saturday supplement of The Times.
36. She was previously columnist for Essentials magazine.
37. Hussain is ambassador for Starlight Children’s Foundation, which supports lives of seriously ill children^.
38. 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.
39. In 2018, Hussain became a brand ambassador for Swarovski on a campaign focusing on female empowerment.
40. 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.