Nigella Lawson says viral ‘microwave’ moment has made her self-conscious
TV chef and author says she rarely says the name of the common kitchen appliance any more
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Your support makes all the difference.Nigella Lawson has shared her feelings towards her unique way of pronouncing “microwave”.
The TV chef went viral in 2020 after she referred to the kitchen appliance as a “mee-cro-wah-vey”, rather than its more common pronunciation.
Lawson, 63, appeared on the Christmas Day edition of BBC Breakfast, on which she was questioned about the public reaction to her microwave moment.
“I wasn’t quite aware I’d said it, as that’s what I call it at home,” she explained to presenter Jon Kay.
“What’s quite interesting is that a lot of people got in touch with me to tell me what their family mispronunciations are, because so many families do have that. They mispronounce a word, either 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 sticks.”
Kay then prodded her on whether she uses the same quirky pronunciation to this day.
“So will you be saying on Christmas Day, ‘I’m just going to put these sprouts in the mee-cro-wah-vey’?” he asked.
However, the Simply Nigella cookbook author said that she barely says the name of the appliance anymore.
“I’m not, it’s made me quite self-conscious now,” she explained. “I tend to refer to it as the ‘you-know-what’ now.”
Lawson has previously addressed the attention that came referring to her saying “microwave”, which included countless memes and jokes.
On Twitter, she responded to a person wondering whether she actually says the word in that way, or if it was only for comic effect.
“Well, I do say it like that, but not because I think that’s how it’s actually pronounced,” she wrote on the social media site, later adding: “Can this be the end of it now?”
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