Sussex charity worker recalls her experience on Come Dine With Me: “I didn't expect to muck up so spectacularly!”

Paula started a food waste prevention scheme in Newhaven in lockdown, covering the Lewes District Coastal stretch. She wanted to raise awareness of the charitable project, Havens Food Cooperative, and of the fact that the UK wastes millions of tons of food every year, on the show.

She has also featured on multiple TV shows in the past, but had taken a 20 year break from participating. In the nineties she would apply to be contestants on game shows such as Wheel of Fortune, Big Break, Kicked into Touch and more. Her biggest win was a large screen TV on Wheel of Fortune, which she gifted to her parents-in-law.

Paula said: “I knew I had a good chance of being picked because the idea I pitched to them was to make my meal using mostly food that had been rescued from supermarkets and would have been sent to landfill - and I was right! From hundreds of applicants from the Brighton area, I became one of the five contestants.”

On her outcome on the show, she said: “I'm not renowned for my cooking skills but I didn't expect to muck up so spectacularly on 'my' day to host. I rubbed my eyes after cutting chilli's and dunked my head in the washing up bowl, I cut the vegan burgers with the knife I'd just cut the beef with and I set fire to the vegetables in the oven. But other than that? It all went well. In fact they said my starter, made with leftover vegetables, was the best soup they'd ever had!

“Of course, I came last. But then, at least I didn't get 'nil points'!”

She added: “After the show, as we had become such good friends, we visited each other's actual houses for meals and nights out. I loved the people I was cast with and we are still firm friends two years later. The director of our week said that the contestants always say they'll keep in touch but never do. I said we were different. And we are.”

Paula and the other contestants still have a WhatsApp group they all chat on, named “The Angela Lansbury Memorial Society” in honour of one contestant who recently passed away.

On advice for the show and whether it is worth participating in, Paula said: “You get given £200 to spend on food ingredients, drink and activities when you appear on the show and you don't get paid to appear at all. You have to take a week off work and you'll be exhausted after filming - I'd advise taking an extra couple of days off the following week.

"Because I used leftover ingredients from my Food Hub, I donated the entire £200 to the charity and used my own money to provide drinks and my activity (which wasn't shown in the series). You also had to decorate the table in your own theme. I used mini toy recycling trucks and tiny bins filled with flowers.”