Television has always had a strange relationship with wine. The main problem being that no matter how enthusiastically a wine buff describes their cheeky little wine from Anjou, the viewer is left unable to smell or taste it. Cooking on TV works because each dish looks entirely different, but no matter how beguiling the wine presenter they are still stuck with a glass of white or red liquid, end of story. All that is about to change, thanks to Richard & Judy's Wine Club. Late on Friday afternoons, the box's most famous married couple are inviting us to taste wines at the same time as them, doing for wine what they have already done for books through their now legendary book club - opening a difficult TV subject up to literally millions of viewers. Already over 70,000 people are signed up to their eponymous wine club giving them the chance to spit or swallow with Richard and Judy. Wine producers must be wetting themselves at the thought of getting their bottle on the same programme that added countless noughts to sales of novels such as Star of the Sea, The Lovely Bones and indeed my own book, Toast. So if you ever thought wine wouldn't work on telly be prepared to think again. Lynn Barber tracks down our afternoon tipplers for OFM.

This year my garden was a picture of magenta and wine-red dahlias and heavenly old-fashioned sweet peas. Like many of my plants they came via Sarah Raven's mail-order company. Single-handedly Sarah Raven has made me rethink colour in the garden, and taken me out of my 'good taste rut' into a world of vibrant and sometimes shocking colour. Tucked into her latest catalogue is a leaflet about her new cookery and gardening school where students can watch demonstrations by some of the country's most famous cooks and gardeners. If I ever did a cookery demonstration (and I won't) this is where I would I choose to do it. This month the author and member of the BBC Gardener's World team opens her doors to OFM.

I never really think of Italians as needing a cookbook. Good eating comes naturally and hands-on cooking is part of their national identity. But there is one cookbook that finds its way into as many Italian kitchens as Delia in Britain, a book that has 2,000 recipes and is on every wedding list - The Silver Spoon. It is 55 years old and has at last been published in Britain: we feature recipes so you can see for yourselves. And this month sees the start of the annual OFM awards, so if there is anywhere or anyone you think deserves to be recognised then please let us know. We would hate anyone who deserves it not to be recognised in what has become the biggest event in the foodie calendar. As Richard and Judy might say 'Bottoms up!'

· Nigel Slater is The Observer's cookery writer