I'm not a risk taker, says Nigella Lawson as she gets her TV career back on track

She has endured intimate details of her personal life being aired in court, with allegations about her tempestuous marriage and cocaine use becoming common knowledge.

But Nigella Lawson, in comments made before the notorious court case and published today (Saturday), has said she is not a "risk taker" and dislikes confrontation.

The television cook, 53, said she is "conflict-averse" and, in her role as a "home cook", uses food to bring harmony to all walks of life. In an interview with the Radio Times, she also discusses her new Channel 4 show, The Taste, which she says moves away from the reality television model of "humiliation and breast-heaving back stories" to being just about the food.

The programme features Miss Lawson alongside two acclaimed chefs, Ludo Lefebvre and Anthony Bourdain. A week ago it emerged that Miss Lawson may face a police investigation after admitting in court she had previously used drugs.

Giving evidence during the fraud trial of her former personal assistants, Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo, she admitted taking cocaine several times, most recently in 2010, and smoking cannabis.

She has also had details of her personal life discussed at length in the media, after the publication of pictures appearing to show her former husband Charles Saatchi with his hands around her throat.

Despite being under such scrutiny, Miss Lawson has resumed her professional commitments, including posting recipes for fans from her personal Twitter account and publicising The Taste.

In the programme, the three chefs sample one spoonful of food from 25 hopeful cooks, whittling them down based on the taste alone. When asked about the difference between professional chefs and home cooks, Miss Lawson said: "What I would say - and this is not about food, it is about the personality - is that, as a general rule, chefs are conflict-driven, they are perfectionist, they are risk takers.

"Whereas home cooks tend to be conflict-averse - well, I am - not necessarily risk takers, and we seek to use food to bring harmony, for whatever reason."

Speaking about The Taste, she said: "What I liked, not being terribly confrontational as a person, is that because you taste everything blind, you're never making any judgments on a person and you're just talking about the food.

"So much of reality TV is the theatre of humiliation or in some sense the culture of the breast-heaving back story, so to have a good competition that is actually about food is... rather pleasant." She also disclosed that she was a fan of the BBC's The Great British Bake Off, which has been praised for its gentle approach to cooking.

Her new television programme, to be broadcast from Jan 7, is likely to be a welcome relief for fans, who have united under the name Team Cupcake or Team Nigella to support her during the recent court case.

The cook, who has published a series of bestselling books including How to Be a Domestic Goddess, has condemned the nature of the trial, which she claimed led to her being vilified despite only being called as a witness.

In a statement released after the not guilty verdict for the Grillo sisters, she said she was "disappointed but unsurprised", adding: "Over the three-week trial the jury was faced with a ridiculous sideshow of false allegations about drug use which made focus on the actual criminal trial impossible."

Commander Stephen Watson, of the Metropolitan Police, subsequently told The Sunday Telegraph that officers would examine the "implications" of what Miss Lawson had said under oath and seek advice from the Crown Prosecution Service.

Other details that emerged from evidence given during the trial included the claim that there was a "culture of secrecy" within the Saatchi-Lawson marriage. Isleworth Crown Court was also told that Miss Lawson was only permitted to hold dinner parties once every two years at her marital home in west London, and that she was "not happy about that".