Wednesday, April 21, 2010

More Blue Ribbon success

The Blue Ribbon Cookbook has been nominated for the 2010 Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards, due to be announced in Adelaide on May 3 as part of Tasting Australia. It is the second international accolade for the book which was named runner-up out of 56 finalists from around the world in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Paris last year.
Known as the Ladles, the World Food Media Awards are held every two years, with categories for a wide variety of food and drink broadcasting and publishing, from books and magazines to journalism, photography, TV and the internet.
Liz Harfull's book about country show cooks and their prize-winning recipes is nominated in the category for Best Hard Cover Recipe Book (under 35 Euros).
Two other books published by Wakefield Press have been shortlisted in the Best Food Book category - Lolo Houbein's 'One Magic Square', and 'Everything but the squeal' by John Barlow.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Not Belgium... but Singapore to a tea..

As president of an Australian organisation representing people who write and communicate about food and farming, Liz is meant to be in Belgium this week meeting with peers from around the world. But thanks to volcanoes in Iceland, she found herself trapped en route in Singapore for four days before aborting her plans altogether and coming home unexpectedly early.
What to do as compensation? High tea at Raffles was on the agenda until a Singapore resident warned her they now use tea bags - a completely unacceptable development to a keen tea drinker who also collects tea pots!
Instead, Liz discovered two treasures that were almost compensation for missing out on all that Belgian chocolate - high tea at the Shangrila Hotel (102 kinds of tea offered to accompany an amazing selection of savoury and sweet dishes in elegant surroundings); and the TWG Tea company, which sells more than 200 kinds of tea including a fabulous Singapore breakfast tea and hard-to-get first-flush, finest orange pekoe picked from the highest altitudes of some of the world's best tea estates. Nothing like a good cuppa to soothe the travel-tortured nerves.