Nigella Lawson admits she doesn’t do dinner parties anymore

The kitchen guru, who has just been in Australia to film My Kitchen Rules, has made an unexpected admission about her own cooking habits.

Nigella Lawson

Nigella Lawson has admitted she no longer hosts lavish dinner parties, preferring instead to have one or two friends over for an informal meal.

The star, who was recently in Australia for six weeks filming My Kitchen Rules, has now returned to her luxury home in Chelsea.

However, despite having a glorious open-plan kitchen she says the days of hosting large gatherings are behind her.

Speaking toThe Times she said: “I’ve got out of the habit of it.

“I’ll have a person or a couple of people over quite often and I keep planning to have people round in a proper grown-up way but I haven’t yet. I must!

Nigella Lawson said she doesn’t bother with dinner parties anymore (picture credit The Daily Telegraph

“I feel a bit guilty because people have had me for dinner and I haven’t had them back.”

Nigella revealed that she now refuses to do starters unless they are easy and unfussy and shuns formality.

“I’m very happy for a friend to come over in their pyjamas to have supper,” she said.

The self-proclaimed domestic goddess said she prefers to do one big dish and likes friends to help themselves, like a buffet.

“I think narrow tables are better for conversation, so we sit at one and I put the dinner on the other so people can help themselves.”

When it comes to cooking for others, Nigella said she now cooks a lot of vegan dishes as many of her friends have adopted the diet.

“I cook a lot more vegan food than I used to simply because we have more vegans coming to the house.

“That always interests me and I never find it annoying. It’s a good way of cooking a bit differently because it’s not an empty exercise – you’re creating something for a particular person and I like that.”