13 April 2009

SHOWCASE: Terry Tan

Terry Tan was born in Singapore to Straits Chinese parents (father was Indonesian-Chinese Hokkien Baba and mother was a local Teochew Nonya. After completing his secondary school education, he was a relief teacher for a year and in 1960, joined the then Radio Singapore as an announcer/producer. Trained by local BBC Far Eastern personnel, he worked until 1970 when he became an advertising executive working as a copy-writer and later as Public Relations Executive for multinational companies. He earned his management diplomas at the Institute of Management (Berkshire) and Cranfield Technical College in the UK in 1974.

Head-hunted in 1975 by the Straits Times, he joined Singapore Press Holdings and after gaining his Diploma in Journalism. He worked as features writer, sub-editor and subsequently Executive Editor for books and magazines division, Times Editions (Singapore/Pacific). Appointed Associate Editor for Lifestyle and Women’s Magazine (Her World), flagship issue of Times Annual and Sunday Nation (now defunct).

He also worked for one year as current affairs presenter for ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation Asia).

In 1983, he came to England to work as the Executive Chef (Chinese and South-east Asian cuisine, Rasa Sayang Restaurant and Butterfields, Margaret Street).

In 1990 he became Editor-in-Chief for Wine & Dine, Singapore Health, Singapore Restaurant Guide and other leisure publications. Developed Wine & Dine as the number one food, drink and travel magazine for Asia Pacific region. Uplifted magazine at first on 4 international airlines and currently on 20. Currently Editor-at Large for Wine & Dine.

Name: Terry Tan
Location: Northampton, UK
Website:
www.terrytan.com
Contact: winding@atlas.co.uk


Other Junkets and books
As master chef on behalf of the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board
• 1985 - Liverpool Garden Festival
• 1986 - San Jose (Silicon Valley)
• 1980 and 1995 Master classes in Australia for the development of Asian food and Wine.
• Taught cookery for 8 years at Ken Lo's Kitchen, culinary theatre with Glynn Christian, demonstrations for IFE Olympia (1994, 1995, 1996 latterly for Amoy products) and Sunday Times Food Show (Oct 7, 1995. Harrods Cookshop, Books for Cooks, Tante Marie.
• Served as development chef for Amoy (HP Foods, UK) products for 10 years.
• Consultant for Asian section of Readers Digest Special Issue on Food.
• Restaurant reviewer for Time Out Food and Drink issue (1999).
Television
• Featured on BBC1 Bazaar with Nerys Hughes, four programmes co-presented by Paddy Haycock on Satellite TV Lifestyle, Anne Diamond's morning programme.
• Hosted three cookery series with Singapore Television (in English).

Cookery Books (published by Times Editions, Singapore)
• Straits Chinese Cookbook (updated for 2009)
• Oriental Cooking for Microwave
• Cooking With Chinese Herbs
• Fuss-Free Cookbook
• Complete Asian Cookbook
• The Thai Table
• Naturally Speaking - Chinese herbal recipes
Other non-food publications (published by Times Editions)
• Culture Shock! Britain (lifestyle)
Monsoon Book
Stir Fried and Not Shaken (2008) a part-biography and nostalgic trip down Singapore’s memory lane)

Other Cookery Books
• Oriental Cooking for Marks & Spencer.
Titles under Appletree Press (Belfast)
• Little Chinese Cookbook
• Little Vietnamese Cookbook
• Little Thai Cookbook
• Little Sichuan Cookbook

Anness Publishing (UK)
Four volumes of Regional Chinese Cooking:
South Chinese
To come 2010 – Eastern (Shanghai) Regional, Western (Sichuan) Regional and Northern (Beijing) Regional
The Food and Cooking of Indonesia and the Philippines
The Food and Cooking of Singapore and Malaysia

Aurum Press
Real Thai
Asian Cook (also translated into four European languages – Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, Italian.