The 20 hours of brand new content have been commissioned by UKTV’s Director of Factual and Factual Entertainment Commissioning, Jane Rogerson, and ordered by Good Food’s Richard Kingsbury alongside UKTV’s Director of Factual, Lifestyle and New Media, Jane Mote.

Funded by Kraft Food’s cheese brand, Philadelphia, Simon Rimmer’s Dinners sees the accomplished chef and author share the delights of simple home cooking in this 10 x 30’ series which will premiere exclusively on Good Food from 12th October. Premiering from 16th November, the brand new 10 x 30’ series Rude Boy Food sees Jamie Oliver’s star pupil, Aaron Craze, finally flying solo as he takes ordinary occasions by the balls and transforms them into knock-out parties. Premiering in Q1 2010, Gary Rhodes makes authentic regional Italian cuisine the focus of his brand new 10 x 60’ series Rhodes Across Italy, the fourth instalment of Good Food’s Rhodes Across… franchise following journeys across India, China (funded by Amoy) and the Caribbean.

UKTV’s Jane Rogerson says, “We are thrilled to be working with Denham on both the Simon Rimmer AFP with Philadelphia and with Gary again on the fourth series of the hugely popular Rhodes Across… format, this time rooting out the very best dishes from forgotten corners of Italy. New chef on the block, Aaron Craze, has already proved a massive hit with Market Kitchen viewers, so I’m really excited about Rude Boy Food, which absolutely captures his uniquely energetic and charismatic approach to cooking and entertaining.”

Good Food’s Richard Kingsbury adds, "Good Food is the natural home for the best of established and new food talent. We’re really pleased be continuing our long and fruitful relationship with Gary, while also welcoming Simon Rimmer to the fold. His warm down to earth style and achievable food is already popular with viewers, while Aaron Craze is an exciting new talent who we believe has great potential.”

Simon Rimmer’s Dinners is the brand new series featuring accomplished chef, television presenter and author, Simon Rimmer, whose quest to share the delights of simple home cooking with different guests and learn about their food story before inviting them into the kitchen where he will coach, cook and entertain for them. This series is all about simple food presented in an intimate, stylish and modern way. At Simon’s house, good food made with great gusto is always the flavour of the day – and he’ll show us how we can feed ourselves well, inexpensively and within our time constraints. He’ll also explain how easy it is to include everyone but still cater for individual dietary needs with dishes that are straightforward, great quality, but most of all, not quick to prepare. Produced by Denham Productions, Simon Rimmer’s Dinners is executive produced by Grace Kitto and UKTV’s Catherine Whelton.

Rude Boy Food captures Aaron Craze in his element; kicking back with his mates, bantering with strangers and getting fired up over food. Oozing with confidence, Jamie Oliver’s protégé injects a refreshing dose of entertainment into each episode of a series that promises to transform every day occasions - such as a boys’ night in watching the footie, a hen do, or a fireworks party - into knock-out parties. Aaron takes us beyond the cosy confines of organic markets, gastro pubs and bijou bakeries into his metropolitan, eclectic, sizzling world of food. In each episode, Aaron rocks up to help a mate, a neighbour, or a friend-of-a-friend up their game from ‘average’ to ‘legendary’ host. They’ll visit Aaron’s favourite caffs, markets, street stalls and restaurants for menu inspiration and A1 ingredients. But its not just cooking that Aaron brings to the party – he’s a demon host with his own unique style of entertaining, which includes his ‘music man’, his top cocktail maker, and some highly respectable DJs on speed dial, drafted in as and when needed. Produced by Fresh One, Rude Boy Food is executive produced by Zoe Collins and UKTV’s Catherine Catton, with Jane Gerber as series director.

Rhodes Across Italy is an exploration of authentic regional Italian cuisine which will take Gary Rhodes and his two apprentices on a journey to root out the very best dishes from Italy’s forgotten corners. At the end of their culinary travels they’ll invite the chefs from who they’ve learned so much to come to a celebratory banquet in Rome, where their new-found knowledge of Italian cuisine will be tested to the full. With only his apprentices to help, Gary will have to prepare, cook and serve a full multicourse meal for a room full of discerning Italian diners. He’ll be able to put his own spin on the dishes – but Italian food is one of the great classics and everyone’s a critic – he’ll adapt it too much or in the wrong way at his peril! States visited throughout this ten part series include Trentino Alto Adige in the north east, where the food shows Germanic influence; Veneto on the eastern coast, where seafood and masses of game are readily available; Puglia, where copious amounts of garlic and onion are used; and Calabria, where the food is influenced by both Arabic ingredients (oranges, raisins and aubergines) and the agricultural practices of Cistercian monks. Produced by Denham Productions, Rhodes Across Italy is executive produced by Grace Kitto and UKTV’s Steve Grizzell.

Since rebranding on 22nd June, Good Food has increased its reach by +10% to 1.6 million viewers every week to retain it’s position as the number one lifestyle channel in the UK. The channel also boasts an enviable ABC1 profile of 59% which is 10% points above the genre average and its complementary website, goodfoodchannel.co.uk, is Britain’s number one commercial food and drink website in the UK (source: Hitwise). Good Food is the UK's only dedicated food channel and as such, features all the biggest names in food, including Jamie Oliver, Gary Rhodes, James Martin, Rachel Allen, and The Hairy Bikers. Appealing to both the expert cook to someone who just wants to have fun with food, Good Food also offers exciting commissions such as Mitch and Matt's Big Fish, Rachel Allen: Bake!, and Market Kitchen, alongside exclusive acquisitions from overseas, such as Bill’s Holiday and 4 Ingredients.

Notes to Editors
About UKTV (www.uktv.co.uk)
Formed in 1997, UKTV is an independent commercial joint venture, between BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, and Virgin Media. Attracting  36.5  million viewers each month, the network consists of 10 distinctive channel brands  – Watch, G.O.L.D., Dave, Alibi, Yesterday, Blighty, Eden, Home, Really and Good Food  – offering a broad range of quality programming across entertainment, lifestyle and factual programming. UKTV currently operates 17 broadcast streams when multiplexes (+1s) are taken into account, and 10 highly successful websites.

Promising to creatively connect its audiences with great programming, UKTV’s successful programming strategy combines quality content from the BBC with high profile original commissions and key acquisitions.

All UKTV channels are distributed on Sky and Virgin Media. Dave and Yesterday are also available on Freeview.

For more information, please contact:-
Rebecca Edwards, Senior Corporate Communications Manager, UKTV
020 7299 6261 / 07974 985 453 / Rebecca.edwards@uktv.co.uk