Artistes of the Month
Also Featured: Antony Worrall Thompson, Oz Clarke
Alan
Wright
Alan
Wright was an award-winning BBC Radio and TV presenter for almost 30 years
and, today, runs his own successful business specialising in media strategy
and consultancy. He works with many large UK companies and has been very
busy recently working as a strategic adviser on changes in the Fire Service,
under the umbrella of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. He has
recently been appointed as a member of the Advisory Committee for England
for Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator.
Alan has spoken professionally all over the UK and beyond, and is particularly
keen to see presentation skills used as a major asset for young people
going into employment. The highlight of recent years was a personal speaking
invitation from the Prime Minister.
Alan is very experienced as an event and awards host, and has compered "talk-ins" with many of the biggest names in British sport.
A recent review said "Alan is a supreme entertainer - brilliantly funny, but thought-provoking too - quite a combination."
Click
here to view Alan's online video showreel
Antony Worrall Thompson
Antony
Worrall Thompson is a restaurateur and one of the most familiar and popular
TV chefs. He presents Saturday Chefs on ITV, having moved from Saturday
Kitchen on BBC, and is a regular guest chef on Ready Steady Cook.
Known fondly as AWT or Wozza, Antony was born in Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon and educated at a Canterbury public school. Afterwards, he studied hotel and catering management at Westminster College before taking his first catering job in Essex. It's rumoured that his grandmother refused to write to him because she couldn't bring herself to write Essex on the envelope.
In 1978, he moved to London and became sous-chef at Brinkley's Restaurant in the Fulham Road. One month later, he was head chef. The following year he took a sabbatical in France, eating and working his way around the local cuisine. By 1981, AWT had opened his own restaurant in London - notable for only serving starters and puddings.
Since then, the restaurants he's been involved with have been heaped with accolades. He has won the Mouton Rothschild Menu Competition and the Meilleur Ouvrier de Grande Bretagne (MOGB) - the chef's Oscar. More recently, he opened the popular neighbourhood restaurant Notting Grill and Kew Grill in Kew.
Antony has also written several recipe books and contributes to the Daily Express newspaper.
He is passionate about organic farming and grows many herbs and vegetables for his restaurant.
Despite an extraordinary and energetic professional lifestyle, he still manages to find time for art, antiques, tennis and swimming (he swam the Channel when he was 16), gardening and, of course, his wife Jay and their two children, plus a dog called Trevor, two cats, 12 pigs and a variety of fish who all live at his country cottage on the banks of the Thames. In 2003, he showed he was game for a laugh when he appeared on ITV's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here.
In the corporate world, Antony's equally happy conducting a demo, hosting
an event or simply talking about food, the world and everything. However
you use him, you'll discover he's one of the nicest most genuine guys
in the business.
Oz Clarke
Oz
Clarke's wine career began when he captained the wine-tasting team for
Oxford University. After graduating, Oz spent a number of years as an
actor for the Royal Shakespeare Company, The National Theatre, The Old
Vic, Chichester and the West End. Before turning to writing professionally
in 1984, Oz was by then a leading West End actor (playing all the men
in the Mitford Girls, Sweeny Todd and Peron in Evita).
He has been wine correspondent of The Daily Telegraph. His first book, the first edition of Webster's Wine Guide (now annually published Oz Clarke's Wine Guide) won the first Wine Magazine Book of the Year Award and the first Wine Guild of the United Kingdom Wine Writer Award.
Since then he has written Oz Clarke's New Essential Wine Book, a further fifteen editions of his Wine Guide and The Pocket Wine Guide, which again won for Oz the Wine Guild and Wine Magazine Book of the Year Award, Sainsbury's Regional Wine Guides and Sainsbury's Pocket Book of Wine. Oz Clarke's New Classic Wines is a major book about new world-class winemakers and their wines that should, in Oz's opinion, be regarded as 'New Classics'. This book won the Glenfiddich, The Andre Simon and The Wine Guild Awards.
In 1995 he launched the Microsoft Wine Guide on CD ROM, which reviews nearly 6,000 wines with regional maps. It has been awarded the Silver Award in the category titled "Vittoria Coffee Best Food and/or Beverage CD Rom or Internet Website.
Oz Clarke's Wine Atlas, was published in October 1995 by Little, Brown and this book represents a unique approach to the world of wine, capturing the beauty of the world's great vineyard areas in spectacularly hand-painted panoramic maps and full-colour photographs. This book won the Julia Child Cookbook Award in The Wine, Beer and Spirits Category.
Published in autumn 1997 were Oz Clarke's Wine Companions to Bordeaux, Tuscany, Burgundy and California and also Oz Clarke's Wine Guide 1998. In the first week the Guide went straight to Number One in the Sunday Times Bestseller Chart. Also in 1997 Little, Brown introduced Oz Clarke's Pocket Wine Book to the trade for the first time. Grapes and Wines, which Oz co-wrote with Margaret Rand, was published in 2001 by Little Brown and it won the Lanson Wine Book of the Year 2002. Oz Clarke's Wine Guide 2002 on CD-ROM, published by Websters/Focus, was awarded the Lanson Annual Wine Guide of the Year 2002.
Oz was given the Special Millennium Award by Le Prix du Champagne Lanson
for his outstanding contribution to wine education and communication during
the last ten years. Mr Georges Alnot, Managing Director of Champagne Lanson
said 'we are proud to present this Award to Oz Clarke, for his enthusiasm,
passion and energy in his field'.
Oz was a presenter of BBC TV's Food and Drink programme where his remarkable tasting ability has won him great notoriety. He was a regular presenter of the BBC1 daytime makeover show Style Challenge, and has contributed to numerous programmes on both TV and Radio.
As well as his work as a broadcaster Oz hosts many wine tastings throughout the year and produces his annual Wine Guide. He is a popular choice at corporate events, conducting themed tastings, and matching wines to certain menus, and taking the audience through his choices before each course.
Oz Clarke lives in West London, where, when not writing about wine, he likes to avoid drinking altogether (except for the occasional pint of Fuller's ESB), playing any sport he can lay his hands on and dreaming wistfully of lying on a palm-fringed sandy beach somewhere near to the Equator.
'A rather belated note to thank you for all your efforts on 24th May
- another "tour de force"...the evening was a great success
and our clients clearly thoroughly enjoyed themselves, as did my partners
and staff.'
Slaughter and May - Oz conducted a wine tasting of Old and New World
wines at their offices in London
'Oz went down very well with the guests and was great to work with.'
Citroen UK - Oz conducted a wine tasting at the launch of the Citroen
C4
Further Information
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