The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

« Headlines

Publishers cooking up a storm

02.10.08 Benedicte Page

Publishers' hunger for making star authors out of celebrity chefs is showing no sign of abating, after three chefs signed new deals.

Transworld publishing director Doug Young has bought a book by Marcus Wareing, chef at the two-Michelin-starred Petrus restaurant in Knightsbridge, which was relaunched this month under the new name Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley. Nutmeg and Custard is described as Wareing's "definitive guide to the kind of food you want to eat with your friends and family, whether it's for special occasions or a normal weekday supper". Young bought British and Commonwealth rights from agent Grainne Fox and the book will be published in September 2009.

Meanwhile, Quadrille has bought a new cookery book from Australian TV chef Bill Granger, in a deal done between Granger and Quadrille m.d. Alison Cathie. Feed Me Now is to be published in spring 2009 and will focus on "food with minimum fuss and maximum flavour". Cathie said: "We're thrilled to welcome Australia's number one chef to our stable of successful cookery writers."

Hutchinson has bought world rights to two cookery books by chef and TV presenter Silvena Rowe, with Emma Rose striking the deal with Felicity Blunt at Curtis Brown. The first book will be published in May 2010 and will explore the food of the "unknown Mediterranean", drawing on Rowe's Ottoman heritage and love of eastern Mediterranean cuisine. Publishing director Caroline Gascoigne said the deal was a "very exciting development" for Hutchinson, with Rose adding: "Silvena's passion for food is so incredibly genuine and inspiring, and her recipes are just divine, as well as very achievable."

There was support among booksellers for the deals. Shelley McGlashan, bookseller at Books for Cooks, where Rowe was formerly a bookseller, said: "A TV presence is a great help. Jamie's ‘Ministry of Food' started this week and people came into the shop the next morning asking, 'Have you got the book yet?'."

Benedicte Page publishers Rights deal cooks