'My dyslexia struggle stopped me cooking but one thing has changed everything'

Famed for creating clean lines, warm tones and her timeless taste, interior designer Kelly Hoppen promotes a flawless image. But, there’s always been one disaster zone in her life: the kitchen.

However, that’s all changing now she’s signed up to appear on ITV1’s Cooking With The Stars, on which she is mentored by Michelin-starred chef Michael Caines. “My whole life has been a culinary disaster,” laughs Kelly, 66. “I’ve had thousands, millions of culinary disasters! I’m not a cook and my mother never cooked so this is all very new to me.”

Fellow celebs joining Kelly in the kitchen include soap star Natalie Cassidy, Love Island ’s Ekin-Su Cülcüloglu, comedian Hugh Dennis, DJ Jordan North, Jack Osbourne (whose appearance was filmed before the death of his father Ozzy ), ex-TOWIE favourite Jessica Wright and former footballer Shaun Wright-Phillips. It comes after John Torode's wife Lisa Faulkner breaks her silence after his MasterChef sacking.

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Across six episodes, the stars and their mentors will battle it out to create delicious dishes. At the end of each episode, the bottom two celebs will fight for their place in the competition, creating a dish without any help from the pros.

The loser will be decided by a blind tasting test from the mentoring chefs, who may unwittingly vote their own student out of the competition. The show is sponsored by M&S, which also stocks one of Kelly’s latest homeware ranges. It was during drinks with the retail giant’s bosses that she accidentally agreed to do the show.

“I think I was on my second Aperol Spritz,” admits Kelly. “And I went, ‘Yeah, why not?’ And then never thought about it again until I got the call and was told it was starting in X amount of days and then went into total shock."

It wasn’t until Covid struck and restaurants closed that Kelly was forced to learn to cook. However, she struggled to read recipes due to her dyslexia, and ended up only learning very simple dishes. Luckily, Michael helped her find her feet in the kitchen.

“Learning how to cook with Cooking With The Stars was very hard because I’m dyslexic,” explains Kelly. “When I
was growing up I didn’t know I was dyslexic, but Michael was amazing because he wrote the recipes for me in a way that I knew how to read them. Most recipes are written where you read through a recipe and then you’ve got all the ingredients on another page. But Michael would put them all together for me as it was the only way that my brain could work it out.”

Through trial and error, Kelly developed a system where she could follow a recipe and she hopes her time on the show will inspire others with dyslexia to cook more.

“I’m a real pioneer for people that have dyslexia and there are so many tools that you can use. I managed to do that and it really shocked me because that’s been one of the things that has set me back from really cooking,” says Kelly.

But once she’d cracked the recipes, Kelly suddenly found she wanted to win. “I’ve always thought I wasn’t competitive, but I can tell
you now I am!” laughs Kelly. “It’s definitely in me.”

Lots of chefs struggle to make their food look attractive, but presentation came naturally to Kelly, who has an MBE for services to interior design. “That bit was easy, that bit I knew I could do,” says Kelly. “But it would always be at the very end, when you have very little time.”

Since teaming up with Michael, Kelly’s changed the way she cooks and her new dishes are impressing her partner John Gardiner, and even her food writer daughter Natasha Corrett. But her favourite comfort food remains a simple bag of crisps. “If I’m really going to go comfort food and not care, it would be packets of crisps,” says Kelly. “Black pepper crisps, but not one packet, three. That would be heaven.”

Cooking with the Stars airs Sunday at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.

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