For Nigella Lawson, the #MeToo movement marks a departure from the bad old days of sexism.

Speaking at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday, the author and TV presenter said she, like “everyone”, viewed #MeToo as an important moment.

“It’s also very good that young women are brought up perhaps to fight and to feel they must stand up for themselves. I think certainly women of my generation were always encouraged to make men feel good about themselves, and I don’t mean we were taught to acquiesce, but in perhaps shunning any overture, we were always told we mustn’t make a man feel bad about anything ... I think that it’s good that a generation of women who aren’t being brought up to think the most important thing is the man feels OK about having made a pass at someone and been rejected.”

In 2013, Lawson divorced her second husband, art dealer Charles Saatchi, after he was photographed allegedly choking her in a restaurant. Saatchi accepted a police caution for common assault for the incident.

Asked by the presenter Maeve O’Meara, of SBS TV, about bullying and sexism in the restaurant industry, Lawson highlighted the position of more junior workers.

“It’s important to remember that this affects women in every line of work, and in very unglamorous lines of work too, where they don’t have voices to complain. I think that it’s important that those women’s lives are being paid attention to and being safeguarded.”

Lawson was frank and funny during the wide-ranging 90-minute onstage conversation, answering questions on what she would be if she was a food – “a very good loaf of bread”. She was also asked about her unsuccessful attempts at pottery and why she eats quickly: “I like being flooded with pleasure,” she said.

Lawson said dealing with the death of her first husband John Diamond from cancer had shaped the way she now approached life.

“Human beings have this miraculous gift to carry on in the everyday without being completely poleaxed by the thought of their own mortality, so we can do that. Otherwise you would go around being so terrified.

Nigella Lawson with SBS presenter Maeve O’Meara at the Sydney Opera House. Photograph: Daniel Boud

“It’s how to have some element of being aware that life is precious and limited and fragile, so you need to be aware of that just enough to make you value the good things but not to be so aware of it that the fear of that takes over. Everything in life is a bit of a balancing trick and because of that, we often stumble and that’s human as well.”

In response to an audience member’s question about protecting food cultures such as that of Indigenous Australians, Lawson said she had been influenced by what she had learned about ingredients and cooking from Indigenous Australians, but it was important that a food culture was not appropriated by chefs. “As much as possible the people whose foods are being forgotten are the people who we need to bring that cooking to us,” she said.

Lawson said she was sceptical of the trend towards eating seasonal, local produce, describing it as “a new form of elitism”. She said she shopped at both local farmers’ markets and supermarkets, but acknowledged that was not easy for everyone.

“For many people eating every day and feeding their families, that is just not possible ... I know from when I’ve grown my own food, to cook with food you’ve grown yourself, that gives me a huge thrill, so where possible, yes it’s ideal [but] I’m always aware that it’s not possible always.”



She was critical of recent Public Health England advice to limit children’s snacks to two per day. “What are they proposing? To go to people’s houses and watch what they give their children. I don’t understand. I think it’s looking at everything the wrong way round.”