Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood has a perfect mix of skills, a helping of charm and more than a pinch of confidence in his genes.
But now he can pin down exactly where he gets his good taste from Poolewe in Wester Ross.
The GBBO favourite stars in the first of a new series of Who Do You Think You Are? on BBC1 this Thursday.
Paul traces his mother’s family heritage to the Highland village on the west coast.
“I’ve travelled around Scotland a lot but the furthest north I’ve ever been is Aberdeen,” says the 49-year-old of his first visit to Ross-shire. “This is considerably further north.”
“It’s just one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been in my life, and I’ve travelled quite a lot.
“The fact that my ancestors come from this area chimes with me because I love mountains, I like being near the sea and this place seems to be ticking every box.
“Coincidence? Maybe.”
Paul learns that his great-greatgreat-grandfather Donald McKenzie worked the land in Poolewe in the early 19th Century and held the position of the local postman.
The job included a weekly walk to Dingwall to collect the mail a 120-mile round-trip! “He must have been some kind of superman,” says Paul.
Donald had a son, Kenneth, who moved to Glasgow to serve in Britain’s first ever police force, formed in 1800.
Despite his commitment to law enforcement, Kenneth was an alcoholic who was twice fined for drinking on duty and also charged with assaulting a prisoner before being dismissed from the force.
It was Kenneth who moved to Merseyside, where Paul was born a century later.
Paul also researches the wartime service of his grandfather Norman, who he was particularly close to following the divorce of his parents when he was 10.
“If I was upset about my mum and dad getting divorced, then my grandad was always the one who told me stories,” he recalls. “He became like a father figure . . . he was a great man. My grandad’s eyes are identical to mine, when you block off his eyes in a photograph, it’s me.”
The journey of discovery takes him to north Africa, where Norman served in an anti-aircraft unit, and Italy, where he was one of the first Allied troops to go ashore at Anzio.
“Before this I knew nothing about my ancestors and very little about my Grandad,” says Paul, who last Wednesday sent home hat-wearing hipster Stu Henshall in The Great British Bake Off’s return. “But now, I’ve got something to hang my hat on.
“To be part of this and know about my ancestors on the branch of the family that takes me back to the Highlands of Scotland the McKenzies . . . is magic.”
Fans will no doubt hope for a Hollywood range of shortbread and oatcakes to follow.
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