On the 17th of June at the Design Museum, London, the Guild of Food Writers announced the winners of their much- coveted annual Awards. Colin Spencer presented the beautiful engraved trophies to some of the industry’s finest writers and broadcasters.

Laura Santtini was awarded the Jeremy Round Award for Best First Book, for Easy Tasty Italian, published by Quadrille in October 2009.

Delicious Chinese cooking with Ching

In her new app, based on the Channel 5 TV series "Chinese Food in Minutes", Ching-He Huang shows you how to create her delicious, healthy versions of Chinese classics at home. The app includes 29 of the best recipes from the TV series, beautifully illustrated and with step-by-step instructions, plus high-quality videos of Ching cooking selected recipes.

 

Recipes can be browsed in portrait or landscape, searched for specific words and ingredients, and favourite recipes can be bookmarked for later use. You can also add recipes to a personal menu and get Ching's recommendations for dishes to complete your menu. And when you've decided what to cook, you can add the ingredients to a shopping list with a single tap - then either e-mail it or take the list to the store and use it to mark off items as you buy them. 

 

With Chinese Food in Minutes, you'll be preparing delicious and healthy authentic Chinese cuisine at home in minutes.

 

Click here to buy it from the App Store

 

 

By Ben Fenton, Chief Media Correspondent

Published: May 18 2010 23:10 | Last updated: May 18 2010 23:10

 Peters Fraser and Dunlop, one of the oldest and arguably the UK’s best-known literary agency, has been taken over by Matthew Freud, the public relations executive, and Michael Foster, a leading talent manager.

PFD, which represents both literary estates such as that of JB Priestley and living authors and TV performers ranging from Sir Max Hastings and Simon Schama to Monty Don, has been suffering financial difficulties since losing many of its senior agents two years ago.

The deal will see PFD continue to function separately but within a larger merged group with Mr Foster’s MF Management.

The new company is to be called The Rights House, according to a person close to the takeover. But he dismissed the idea that PFD would disappear as a name. “It has a hundred years of history, so you aren’t going to toss it away.”

Under the terms of the deal, Mr Foster will be majority shareholder while Mr Freud, who co-founded MF Management, will be a “very significant minority shareholder”. PFD’s original stakeholders will have what the person called “a carry”, or small profit share arrangement.

The Rights House will operate as a holding company, with PFD concentrating on literary agency, with the entertainment side of its business transferring to MF Management and the central core of the group exploiting the back catalogue of the agencies’ existing clients.

“For example, if you take the [Apple] iPad, there will be all sorts of ways of repackaging books that will turn parts of PFD’s rights back catalogue, which is massive, into bestsellers again,” the person said. He added: “Agents are brilliant at making sure the talent is producing work for the future yet not so good at exploiting the work from the past, which is where the rights management side comes in.”

The deal comes after recent troubled history at PFD, which suffered a schism in 2008 when many of its agents left to set up a rival, United Agents. Caroline Michel, who came in as chief executive of PFD in 2007, will be one of two senior partners in the new group, alongside Mr Foster.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools.

Roland Vernon's second novel The Maestro's Voice is available now from all good book shops. It tells the story of Rocco Campobello, a great tenor at the hight of his fame. But, when he collapses on stage his has to return to Naples, the city of his birth, and face his dark and sinister past.

PFD is delighted to announce that Daran Little, who was the Associate Lead Writer on the hit ABC series All My Children, has been nominated for Outstanding Daytime Drama Series in the 37th Daytime Emmy Awards. The awards will take place at the Las Vegas Hilton on Sunday, June 27th.

The long-awaited Phoenix paperback edition of The Exmoor Files by Liz Jones now includes new and updated material, including an epilogue entitled 'What happened next'. This is published on Thursday May 13th.

Andrew Viner's first episode of Aardman's children's animation Timmy Time - Sweet Dreams, Timmy – will be on BBC2 on 20th May at 8.30am, repeated on CBeebies at 12.40pm. Andrew has also written the episodes Timmy’s Plane, Timmy’s Birthday and Timmy’s Monster for the series. More information on these can be found in the TV listings, on iPlayer, or at Andrew's website here.

 

Andrew also wrote the script for the My Almost Famous Family online content which can be found here – can you guide the kids’ band to fame and fortune?

Award winning playwright and director Duncan Macmillan's new radio play And So Say all of Us, co written with Dan Rebellato and Linda McLean will be broadcast this Sunday 2nd May at 8pm on BBC Radio 3.

 

This new comedy about the complexity and absurdity of modern life, stars Louisa Lytton, Derek Riddell and Amelia Bullmore. For further information and to listen again, please click here.