Nigella Lawson admits she prefers not to say microwave anymore

Simply Nigella at The Langham. Photo / Norrie Montgomery

Nigella Lawson has admitted she feels self-conscious about saying the word “microwave” aloud after her unique pronunciation of it led to a deluge of jokes and memes online.

The celebrity chef went viral when she revealed she needed to use some warmed milk for a recipe, and had done so by using the microwave.

Except the name of the unremarkable kitchen staple had been uttered in her trademark dulcet tones with an unusual pronunciation, leading to the bizarre term “meecro-wah-vay”, or perhaps “microwavé”.

In a Christmas Day interview with BBC Breakfast, Lawson revealed that her widely-ridiculed mispronunciation was not a mistake but is in fact what she calls the kitchen device when at home.

But the attention it drew has left Lawson feeling “self-conscious” about saying the word out loud.

“I tend to refer to it as the ‘you-know-what’ now,” she added.

In December 2020, as the country was staring at a Christmas in lockdown, Twitter, now known as X, helped a clip from Lawson’s Cook, Eat, Repeat go viral because of the left-field pronunciation instead of her expertly made brown butter colcannon (an Irish cabbage or greens and potato dish).

'I tend to refer to it as the you know what now'

Nigella Lawson tells Jon on #BBCBreakfast she is now 'self-conscious' after mispronouncing the word "microwave"https://t.co/PzgPOlqse4 pic.twitter.com/JOT0DOEJxu

— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) December 25, 2023

Lawson told the BBC she was contacted by many fans who shared mispronunciations that they had inherited afterwards.

She said: “So many families do have that – so they mispronounce a word because a child in the family could never say it properly and that’s become part of their family language, or just because they make jokes and they stick.”

Last year the chef and food writer said many people at Christmas overeat because they felt they should be “picking at things non-stop” throughout the day and urged people to eat for pleasure rather than for the sake of it.

She added that “obscene overindulgence” should be avoided and to avoid feeling overly full you should skip the “madness” of starters before the traditional dinner.

This year she advised that festivities should ditch traditional Christmas cake and instead opt for a more family-friendly chocolate cake.

“Much as I love a slice of dense, damp Christmas cake, especially when eaten with a slice of strong, sharp cheese, I am surrounded by those who abominate dried fruit in all its seasonal manifestations,” she told the Sunday Times.

“If no one in your family likes dried fruit, there’s no point having a Christmas cake gathering dust or just being eaten on sufferance. If chocolate cake appeals more, go for it.”