If you’re stuck for something to do on a Thursday night, why not
pop down to Kettner’s in Soho. Grab a pizza and a beer and sit back in
your chair to enjoy the piano skills of one Orlando Murrin. Now, Murrin
is a man of many talents. He’s not only a pianist and a former finalist
on BBC’s Masterchef programme, but has also just landed the editor’s job
at BBC Good Food magazine.
’The Kettner’s job is the best piano job in London,’ Murrin chirps. ’I
used to play five nights a week all around London when I left college
and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be a pianist or a journalist, but in
the end you find you’re playing the same tune 1,000 times and you hate
it.’
His piano ambitions lasted five years, during which time he cut his
journalistic teeth on the Radio Times and transferred to a variety of
home and lifestyle titles before becoming editor of Woman and Home. He
left in 1996 and moved to Emap Apex as special project editor to develop
a new title. After this project was postponed he provided cover at
Cosmopolitan before securing the Good Food job.
’Good Food is in quite good shape,’ says Murrin. ’You get quite a lot of
editorial liberty and the Corporation trusts you so you don’t betray
that trust. The photography and the cooking is a bit predictable
though.
I am trying to make it more impressive while keeping it aimed squarely
at the mass market. Good Food is the recipe bible of the country and
will stay that way. It’s certainly not going to become a lifestyle title
or anything.’
This change means recruiting new photographers, contributors and a new
features editor as well as a new art editor. Murrin is keen to point out
that these were existing vacancies and not sackings. From June next year
BBC Good Food will finally be in the new format that Murrin craves, but
he admits it is going to be a long process.
’Magazines are quite organic when it comes to changing them
successfully,’ he says. ’We will completely re-format the title but it
will take us from January to May of next year. You just have to do what
you can when you can and with what you’ve got. That sounds defeatist but
I mean it to be realistic.’
Practical words from a man whose appearance on Masterchef included
making seed cakes for his birds. According to one former colleague:
’Orlando is brilliant and he has an unbelievable eye for detail, but he
also has strong ideas about how he likes things done. I’ve noticed the
two often go together - and that can lead to clashes if you oppose him.
He’ll get the job done, though.’
HIGHLIGHTS
1988
Copywriter, Grey Advertising
1991
Deputy editor, Living
1993
Deputy editor, Woman and Home
1994
Editor, Woman and Home
1997
Editor, BBC Good Food
