A biography for John Whaitehasn’t been written yet.
“I've been very vocal in the past about my mental health issues.”
“I learned my love of food from my mum.”
“I am an avid lover of taking photographs of the night sky. Whenever I can, I get myself off to Canada or to Scotland and set up around the lake and spend a few hours in the middle of the night with a flask of coffee, a little glass of whiskey and some snacks.”
“Life shouldn't be about arbitrary power, for power's sake, but about respect, mutuality, decency.”
“My dance skills are reliant on me being a bit pickled in a nightclub, if I try to do a dance move sober it doesn't go very well, but I used to do ballet and tap so I have to be shown what do, so if I watch things I pick things up quite quickly.”
“If I'm peckish and I want something sweet and quick, I make a batch of scones, because they're easy and reliable.”
“If you start thinking of yourself as a brand, you'll come unstuck.”
“I have to disagree with William Shakespeare: love doesn't look with the mind. For me, and most of those around me, love looks with the tummy.”
“After 'Bake Off,' I got these book deals that were very much baking books. But the books I'm producing now like 'Perfect Plates in Five Ingredients' and 'Comfort,' they're really a truer representation of who I am as a food writer and a food industry professional.”
“Ever since I was a little lad, the sun has seemed to shine during my birthday weekend.”
“I grew up on a farm, so I've always been keen on nature, animals and the simpler things in the life - that simple existence.”
“While most kids turned their heads in disgust as a plateful of broccoli landed before them, I ate what I was given. My mum would harp on about how 'life is not a cafe' - I still hear that mantra in my sleep.”
“I was a 23-year-old law student when I won the 'Great British Bake Off' in 2012. For 10 weeks I had balanced my degree finals with the tension and scrutiny inside the white tent (not to mention a few nights out here and there).”
“Ballet is very stiff and I can do a triple timestep but who knows what I will be like at Ballroom or Latin.”
“As a farmer's son, I've always been forced to eat vegetables.”
“I do like my own space. I like to just block the noise out after a while.”
“During the 'The Great British Bake Off' I didn't get to know Mary all that well. We weren't allowed to interact with the judges outside of their moments of critique and commentary.”
“For me, as many dark days as I have, I have bright days where I can achieve so much.”
“Food technology classes at school were so dull. Even as a 14-year-old going through the ignorance of my black-nailed 'goth' phase, my interest in food was much deeper than those shop-bought pizza bases we were instructed to haul in and smother with tomato puree and ready-grated mozzarella.”
“There is a lot of toxic masculinity around.”