Nigella Lawson said she considered becoming a “death doula” – someone tasked with helping the termially ill and people close to them with practical, emotional and spiritual support.

Speaking to Australian Women's Weekly in the wake of a UK speaking tour, An Evening with Nigella Lawson, and after promoting the 20th anniversary edition of her book How to Eat, she said: "There was a time when I thought I'd become a death doula, and it still really interests me, that sort of work, nurturing people at their most vulnerable.”

The 59-year-old celebrity chef was responding to a question about her future career, to which she replied: “Maybe it comes from nurturing my mother and sister and husband through their deaths, but it's a very profound and moving thing to be involved with and I'm not embarrassed or frightened around death.

“I do feel like I'd like to do something useful with my life. I'm deeply interested in people and their complexities."

It has been 20 years since the chef charmed the public with her kitchen skills, but she never expected her book How to Eat to be such a hit.

She wrote the book, she said, as a tribute to her mother Vanessa Salmon and sister Thomasina whom she nurtured through battles with cancer.

"I really wrote it for myself, to remember them, to pour out all of the grief, I think," she said.

"I could never, ever have imagined the response, and to be honest I don't think I could've written it if I'd imagined what the response would be. It would've been utterly paralysing.

"I wrote this as someone who cooks at home for other home cooks. I don't have any particular skills and I don't like anyone to read it thinking I do. I don't want people to expect too much because I'm not an expert, and I don't know the technicalities of cooking. I just deal with the flavour, which is why it worked I think."

Ms Lawson, who is used to the trappings of fame, said she was still very protective of her own children and their privacy.

"They don't want attention, it's not their thing and they didn't choose this life," she explained.

"In many ways I don't feel like I chose it either, but I guess that's what happens if you go on TV."

She also reflected on her life growing up as the daughter of Nigel Lawson, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer.

"I was 14 when my father went into politics and I don't have the same political opinions as my father.

"When I was younger, people with all different views of the world mixed and got along and respected and enjoyed one another's company. Now we don't seem to do that. I'm afraid we live in a world now where differences of opinion aren't tolerated, which is a great shame.”