LONDON  –  Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson is to join “The Great British Baking Show” as a judge, replacing the departing Prue Leith. The move was announced Monday night in a statement from Channel 4, which airs the TV baking competition in the United Kingdom.

It said it was “delighted to announce” Lawson’s arrival on the show, which is known as “The Great British Bake Off” in the UK. “Nigella’s expertise, empathy and humour are the perfect ingredi-ents for the Bake Off tent,” the state-ment reads. Lawson said in the same statement that she is “bubbling with ex-citement” to take up the role, while ac-knowledging that it is “daunting to be fol-lowing in the footsteps of Prue Leith and Mary Berry before her, great dames both.”  “The Great British Bake Off is more than a television programme, it’s a National Treasure – and it’s a huge hon-our to be entrusted with it,” she added. Leith said she is “thrilled” that Lawson will take over her role as a judge.

“She’s sassy, fun and she knows her on-ions — and her croissants, cake and crumble,” she said in the statement. Law-son, age 66, is herself something of a na-tional treasure in the UK, where she is known to many simply as “Nigella” and credited with bringing new audiences to the world of cooking shows thanks to her flirtatious manner. Born in London, she is the daughter of former Chancellor of the Exchequer — or finance minister — Ni-gel Lawson. After studying at Oxford University, she began her career in pub-lishing before moving into media, writing restaurant columns. Lawson went on to contribute to various UK newspapers be-fore writing books.

In 1998, she brought out “How to Eat,” in which she described how food was one of her earliest loves. Lawson went on to re-lease a string of other successful cook-books as well as to host numerous cook-ing shows, such as “Nigella Bites.” She was also a judge on the ABC show “The Taste.”