Known best for her gustatory enthusiasm and dishing up love and witticisms in her cookery books (new one out this September) and on her cooking shows, British sensation Nigella Lawson is a gal who speaks her mind and is true to her self. Lawson has had her share of grief and loss, which no doubt has contributed to her steadfastness to her values that have seen her through the tougher times. Her mother, sister and first husband all died from cancer. Her general life philosophy could be summed up as: "I suppose I do think that awful things can happen at any moment, so while they are not happening you may as well be pleased." The mother of two is author of several books and star in TV specials and series where she encourages us to revel in culinary happiness. "My food philosophy, I suppose, is just… take pleasure in it," she said. “Look, the one thing you should never feel guilty about is pleasure. You should feel guilty if you fail to take pleasure, because it's important to you.” 

Infusing both her food (I’ve made several of her recipes to a resounding tastebuds thumbs up) and her approach to living with love, Lawson oozes a sense of nurturing, comfort and practicality. Her focus is on whom and what she loves, not the worrisome pettinesses. "You know, life is hard, and life is full of ups and downs, so to try and look for something bad in what's good seems to me not a good path to take, because there are going to be enough things that are going to be worrying.”  As an example, she says, “I see paparazzi shots of me with no make-up, wearing trainers, not holding in my tummy, and I hate it, but it would be unbearable to worry about it all the time.”

Grateful for her success in her chosen life path, Lawson says, “…I'm very lucky, and I don't want to question it too much because then I start thinking the wheels might start coming off, and then and then I'd have to find something serious to do!"  

Accountability is important to Lawson. Preserving her family time is of key importance. She acknowledges that she has offers to do 26 episodes of her cooking shows a year but that interferes with her family time too much. Thus, her family gets her time. Writing cookbooks, on the other hand, is something she can do while her two children are in school.

Remarried, Lawson and her husband Charles Saatchi, are collectively worth an impressive fortune. But despite public backlash, Lawson stuck to her guns when she said in an interview that she believes too much inherited money corrupts children. She believes they need to work. While she doesn’t intend to go to the extreme of leaving them penniless, they will know the value of earning a living. She took some flack for her view but she also has a strong sense of self-respect and is not afraid of saying what she believes and sticking to it.  

To read more about Nigella, please click HERE.