The Taste chef Ludo can't get enough of co-star Nigella

(Image credit: Ray Burmiston)

Nigella Lawson's French co-star on The Taste says he has become 'very, very close' to the TV cook.

Ludo Lefebvre, 42, and Nigella, 54, filmed the TV cooking challenge during the fallout from the star's messy divorce.

According to The Sun, married Ludo (left) gushed about Nigella: "Oh Nigella! I feel I have known her for a long time.

"When I moved to America in 1996, she was on TV and she was so beautiful.

"We have become very, very close. We clicked right away. We are in touch all the time."

Speaking about a recent trial involving Nigella's former personal assistants, which led to details of her personal life coming out in court, he added: "She is so nice and not mean. It broke my heart. She is a celebrity for so many years. Have you heard anything like this before?

"No, because she is a great woman."

Nigella's aides Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo were cleared of fraud.

Click here to find out more about Nigella's new Channel 4 show The Taste at Good to Know website.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.