Mary Berry: Wonderfully charming things you did not know about the Bake Off presenter and committed Ibiza raver

Mary Berry has announced she will be standing down as a judge on The Great British Bake Off after it moves to Channel 4. The presenter and food writer said she would be choosing to stay with the BBC out of “loyalty”.

The news follows fellow hosts Mel and Sue’s decision to step down. The revered English comedy double act recently revealed they would be saying their farewells rather than “going with the dough” when the programme makes the move to Channel 4 next year.

Writing in a statement, Berry said: ”My decision to stay with the BBC is out of loyalty to them as they have nurtured me, and the show, that was a unique and brilliant format from day one.”

“I am just sad for the audience who may not be ready for change, I hope they understand my decision. I wish the programme, crew and future bakers every possible success and I am so very sad not to be a part of it. Farewell to soggy bottoms,” the 81-year-old concluded heavy-heartedly.

But there is more to Berry than her “soggy bottoms”, it turns out the veteran foodie, who has published more than 75 cookery books, is a secret clubber and a Breaking Bad fan.

While her contemporaries were spending their days knitting in their rocking chairs, Berry was, believe it or not, dancing her heart out in a super-club in Ibiza. At the age of 71, she found herself beneath the lurid lights of the world-famous Pacha headquarters in Ibiza town.

“They stamp you as you go in, and you can see the steam coming out as you go up the steps,” she told The Telegraph. “It was like a rabbit warren: lots of little rooms and in every room there was music, there were bars, there were strange drinks, there were people smoking or sitting on the floor.”

However, she was most enthused by the massive range of fashion on show (some more scantily-clad than others): “There was every type of clothing you could imagine: miniskirts; some of them with hardly anything on. The noise was amazing and of course the boys couldn’t stand it. They went outside and waited for us on the stairs, and the girls all hung together inside. We didn’t want to miss a trick.”

Before becoming a stalwart of baking, Berry’s first job was at the Bath electricity board showroom. She would spend her ways driving to customers’ homes explaining to them how to use their new electric ovens. She often demonstrated the ovens by making a Victoria sponge then and there - a trick she still employs while testing ovens in her television studio kitchens.

When Berry isn’t whipping up egg whites in the kitchen, she delights in watching drug dealers cooking up crystal meth in the popular crime drama Breaking Bad. She even watched the series on set with Mel and Sue. “It’s shocking! Then you get into it and you think: ‘Have I seen episode four or five?’ You get hooked,” she told The Telegraph. “It’s better than motor racing, which Paul [her husband] watches - though I’d prefer Downton Abbey.”

While most of us might assume Berry is cooking up beautifully crafted marble cakes and frangipane tarts all hours of the day, in 2012 she told The Independent she loves a boiled egg or toast and marmalade for comfort. On top of this, she said she was a big fan for Pizza Express and regularly took her grandchildren there. She also said she enjoys a pub roast.

“We don't get up to town that much, so I'm no connoisseur of posh London food,” she said. “But near us in Penn, High Wycombe, there's a lovely pub that does lots of traditional food like hot pot and slow-roasted pork; I enjoy that sort of relaxed pub eating, so I'd say that's my favourite.”

Berry has become something of a fashion icon for older women. But she is not overly extravagant with her taste - her clothes often come from high street stores including M&S, Zara and Oasis - making her style accessible. When she donned a Zara tropical print bomber jacket back in 2012, Nick Grimshaw tweeted that she looked “dope” and within days the style had sold out. The jacket was then reportedly auctioned on eBay for up to £200.

At the age of 22, Berry trained at Le Cordon Bleu school in France. While there she wound up staying in a “crummy Parisian youth hostel” where she spent every night in her ”room nibbling on a baguette” she wrote in The Daily Mail in 2013. She only stayed a month but said it “felt like a lifetime”.