SHE LOVES DESIGNER GADGETS, BUT EX-STEPS SINGER CLAIRE RICHARDS ADMITS SHE LIVES ON PING CUISINE

With her enormous kitchen and restaurant-sized oven, you’d be forgiven for thinking Claire Richards spends hours rustling up gourmet dinners.

In fact, the ex-Steps star confesses she lives on ping cuisine!

“I’m on a diet for my wedding in November so it’s easier to calorie count with microwaved meals,” she explains.

“But when I’m not slimming I really like cooking.

"Before I got into singing I wanted to be a pastry chef.

"I still love making bread and butter pudding and trifles.

“I love having all the family over for Christmas, when we all sit down around the big dining table.

"I like feeding people and get a lot of satisfaction from making delicious food for people, although Celebrity MasterChef, which I’m a contestant on, is teaching me that being a chef is exhausting.

"So I’m glad I became a pop star!”

Claire, 30, who has a one-year-old son Charlie, bought her three-bedroom ’30s cottage in Middlesex in 2001 with her then partner and spent a year having it renovated.

She now shares it with her fiancé, electrician Reece Hill, 40.

They’re currently adding two more bedrooms and another bathroom.

She says: “When I bought this place I wanted a big kitchen and dining area, so the builder knocked down walls and I helped us get a good deal at Magnet on the beech units.

"I think we spent about £6,000 on the kitchen, which is quite good value.

“I wanted lots of cupboard space and went for the biggest appliances possible – hence the giant cooker and fridge! I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It’s a family area with lots of photos, including some good memories of when I was in Steps.

"I never went near a kitchen in those days – we were always on the road, living on takeaways.”

Claire is on Celebrity MasterChef on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8pm, and Fridays at 8.30pm, BBC1.

 

1. RADIO ”This was a gift but it’s just for show – I prefer listening to my iPod. I’d love more pink in this room but Reece won’t have it!”

2. TEDDY BEAR “Reece bought me this to bring me luck on Celebrity MasterChef.”

3. STORAGE JARS “These are Reece’s – he’s obsessed with Alessi kitchenware. He used to run a gift shop so we have lots of gadgets.”

4. FLOORING “This is made of marble resin. We have it in the downstairs loo and utility room too.”

CLAIRE'S STYLE TIPS

* Changing accessories is a cheap way to update a room.
* Experiment with flooring and different textures instead of relying on carpet or laminate.
* If, like me, you love flowers but hate it when they die, use silk ones instead.

Words: Jane Oddy. Photography: Jamie Hughes. Hair and make-up: Jackie Tyson. Compiled by Sally Gillam

 

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