Lorraine Pascale

Pascale was born to Caribbean parents[1][2] in Hackney at The Mothers' Hospital and was fostered in Leytonstone immediately after she was born.[3] She was adopted at 18 months old and brought up in Witney, Oxfordshire by a white couple, Roger and Audrey Woodward, who already had a son, Jason. Her adoptive father was a multilingual Spanish academic who had taught at Oxford, and her mother was a nurse. When her parents divorced when she was three years old, Pascale remained with her mother, who subsequently became ill and could no longer care for her. At this point, at age seven, she was fostered to more than one family, with differing degrees of 'fit'. After a year she returned to her mother and met up again with her father, who had remarried and had a daughter. She won a full scholarship given by the Buttle Trust and was educated at a boarding school in Devon.[1]

Pascale has an elder brother and a younger half-sister. She knows her biological parents' identity and their four other children, but she does not wish to re-establish contact: "I know my birth parents' names. I know I've got three brothers and one sister, I know that some of them are in London but I don't have any desire or need to find them. One family is enough."[1]

Pascale married musician Count Kazimierz Balinski-Jundzill at age 23, and they had a daughter, actress Ella Balinska. The couple separated in 2000 and subsequently divorced.[1]

At age 16, Pascale was spotted as potential model by the agent who had found Naomi Campbell.[4] Based in New York, she achieved recognition as the first black British model to appear on the cover of American Elle.[5] She appeared in the 1998 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue,[6] and featured as one of the 'Bond Girls' in Robbie Williams' "Millennium" video.[7]

Pascale recognised the need to ensure her future after modelling and embarked on a series of career "try-outs", including hypnotherapy and car mechanics. She took a diploma cookery course at Leith's School of Food and Wine in 2005 and found that cookery fitted her "like a pair of old jeans". After gaining her diploma, she did a series of 'stages' in some London restaurants but, realising that restaurant hours would not suit her, Pascale established herself as a specialist cakemaker, with a contract with Selfridges. Her introduction to Selfridges was at the suggestion of chef Marco Pierre White and in 2008 and 2010 she supplied the London store with over 1000 Christmas cakes. Pascale has opened her own cupcake shop in Covent Garden. She also studied Culinary Arts at Thames Valley University (now University of West London) and in March 2012 graduated with a first class degree.[5][8]

In 2015, Pascale said she practises Transcendental Meditation to relax after work.[9]

Pascale is the patron of TACT, the UK's largest fostering and adoption charity, and an ambassador of both the charities Rays of Sunshine and The Prince's Trust. In summer 2008, she was made the ambassador of the National Careers Service launching the service with Skills Minister John Hayes.[12] Pascale visits schools and Women's Maximum security prisons across the country talking about confidence and emotional resilience.

Pascale has published a number of books, including:

• Baking Made Easy, HarperCollins, 2011 ISBN 978-0007275946
• ''Home Cooking Made Easy, HarperCollins, 2011 ISBN 978-0007275922
• ''Lorraine Pascale's Fast, Fresh and Easy Food, HarperCollins, 2012 ISBN 978-0007489664
• A Lighter Way To Bake, HarperCollins, 2013 ISBN 978-0007538331
• How to Be a Better Cook, HarperCollins, 2014 ISBN 978-0007489688
• Eating Well Made Easy,HarperCollins 2015 ISBN 978-0007489701
• Bake, Bluebird 2017 ISBN 978-1509820733
• The Girlies' Guide to Football, Knaur ISBN 978-3426623770

• Official website
• Lorraine Pascale at IMDb
• Lorraine Pascale on Twitter
• Instagram
• Storm Management Company