Nigella Lawson has unusual BTS habit while filming Great British Bake Off

There are many ways to survive a long day in the Great British Bake Off tent.

You could hover around the ovens. You could sneak a biscuit. You could nervously discuss whether your sponge has, in fact, sunk.

According to Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding, the delightful Nigella Lawson has her own wonderful way of relaxing after the pressures of judging the triumphs (and tragedies) of the day.

It turns out that the celebrity chef loves nothing more than retreating to her shepherd’s hut onset, gathering up a small pile of books, stretching out, and reading like an Egyptian queen.

Quite frankly, it sounds rather lovely.

The star’s surprisingly regal backstage routine has been revealed by Bake Off presenters Hammond and Fielding, who offered a glimpse into what happens when the cameras stop rolling on the smash-hit Channel 4 baking show.

Bake Off hosts Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond revealed Nigella Lawson's habits (YouTube/Dish Podcast)

Speaking on the Dish podcast, Fielding explained that there is a group of little shepherd’s huts used by the cast and presenters backstage.

Crucially, these huts all face one another, meaning everyone can see what the others are up to between filming.

Lawson, it seems, has chosen to spend those precious moments in a rather different way.

“We have these little sort of shepherd’s huts that we all have, and they face each other, and you can just see Nigella in her shepherd’s hut reading,” Fielding said.

She has, he added, ‘a stack of books’ and reclines in a manner he likened to Cleopatra.

Hammond supplied another important detail: Nigella lies across a chaise longue.

Naturally. Whether someone is there peeling her a grape wasn't revealed.

There is something wonderfully on-brand about the whole picture.

While everyone else is worrying about proving, piping and preventing pastry disasters, Lawson appears to have established her own little literary retreat.

Not only that, but apparently, visiting her can also be quite the experience.

Nigella Lawson has a brilliant way of unwinding behind the scenes (Channel 4)

Fielding joked that when Lawson calls somebody into the hut, there is not necessarily a convenient chair waiting for them.

With the chef comfortably occupying the chaise longue, the visitor is left with a more humble seating option.

“You sort of kneel down at her feet,” Fielding joked.

The revelation comes as Lawson settles into her new role on The Great British Bake Off, having joined Paul Hollywood on the judging panel for the latest series after Prue Leith’s departure.

Her arrival has inevitably changed the atmosphere in the tent, and Lawson has spoken about bringing her own focus on flavour, texture and the pleasures of eating to the judging table.

(Channel 4)

Away from the cameras though, she apparently has no interest in joining the frantic backstage scramble.

Instead, there is a book and a chaise longue, and, presumably, there is absolutely no need to discuss whether someone has overworked their dough.

Hammond and Fielding have both raved about working with Lawson, saying what a pleasure she is to work with.

She may be there to inspect cakes, but between takes she appears perfectly content to disappear into a book and let everyone else get on with the baking.

It is also a useful reminder that Nigella has never really been a woman in a hurry, after all, this is the same person who taught the nation the delights of eating doughnut French toast in your silk dressing robe, in the middle of the night.

Cleopatra, indeed.

Now, if only Bake Off would reveal what she is reading.