Australian TV chef Peter Russell-Clarke dies at 89, remembered for ‘Come and Get It' and his creativity
The pioneering TV chef, artist and illustrator passed away peacefully on Friday, July 3, surrounded by his beloved wife Jan, his partner of 65 years, and his two children, Peter and Wendy, following complications from a stroke.
Russell-Clarke was best known for his five-minute ABC series Come and Get It, which aired in the 1980s and cemented his place as one of the first true celebrity chefs in Australia.
Across more than 900 episodes, his expressive catchphrases, neckerchiefs, and twinkling sense of humour became part of the national lexicon.
While many remember him for that signature callout, 'Come and get it!', Russell-Clarke's career spanned far more than television.
He was a political cartoonist, a commercial illustrator, a creative director in one of Australia's top advertising agencies of the 1970s, a restaurateur decades before 'pop-up dining' was a trend, and the author of nearly 40 cookbooks.
He even appeared alongside Derryn Hinch in the cult 1983 comedy At Last... Bullamakanka: The Motion Picture, and was later appointed a food ambassador to the United Nations.
Born in 1935 in Ballarat, Russell-Clarke's early life was marked by instability.
The son of a former Anglican minister and a dressmaker, he spent time in foster care and even experienced periods of homelessness, once scavenging behind Florentino in Melbourne and half-joking that this is where his appreciation for 'fine food' was born.
A stint living with a Chinese family in his youth introduced him to banquet-style cooking and Asian flavours, elements he would return to throughout his culinary career.
'Whether you're cooking or painting, follow your imagination,' he once said, tying together his dual passions.
While Come and Get It eventually left the ABC, Russell-Clarke's popularity endured, thanks in part to a beloved advertising campaign for the Australian Dairy Corporation that had him bounding across paddocks shouting, 'Where's the cheese?'
Decades later, the question still followed him.
His fans remember not just the recipes, but the warmth, mischief and generosity of spirit he brought to the kitchen — and the screen.
'Adieu, Peter Russell-Clarke,' his family said in a statement.
'The lovable, larrikin artist and gentleman of the art of relaxed cooking. 'Til we all meet again.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
2 hours ago
- Perth Now
Feel-good musical in Perth CBD celebrates NAIDOC Week
The musical Bran Nue Dae has been an inspirational influence on generations of Australians, so what better way to bring people together to celebrate 50 years of NAIDOC Week. Yagan Square's amphitheatre in the Perth CBD will transform on Thursday, July 10, for an open-air screening of the much-loved musical comedy. People can enjoy live performances of song, dance and story-telling from 5.30pm, before the film starts at 6.30pm. In conversation with Indigenous singer-songwriter Phil Walleystack, veteran actor Ernie Dingo will reflect on what the film has meant to him, to the community and to the legacy of Aboriginal story-telling. Two decades before the movie was made, Dingo also starred as Uncle Tadpole in the original stage production which took the nation by storm. Ernie Dingo ahead of NAIDOC Week Andrew Ritchie Credit: Andrew Ritchie / The West Australian 'There are a lot of songs that make you feel strong and good within yourself — the majority of songs in Bran Nue Dae are like that,' he said. 'It doesn't matter how you do NAIDOC Week provided it's an educational fun thing, and a fun way of learning can be through music and art.' Walleystack said the aim of the event was to celebrate Aboriginal Western Australia, and to provoke audience members to find out more of the real history behind the songs and stories in the production. 'It's bringing Indigenous people from all over WA together and showcasing that,' he said. 'Bran Nue Dae to me is the biggest film to come out of WA. 'We need to celebrate West Australian artists a lot more, and doing events like this is how we can do that.'
Courier-Mail
5 hours ago
- Courier-Mail
Matt Preston risks riling haters to name No.1 butter chicken
Don't miss out on the headlines from Lifestyle. Followed categories will be added to My News. It seemed such a simple assignment. Australia loves no other curry like it does butter chicken. It's the only curry to turn up regularly on lists of the country's most-cooked dishes. So why not go to India and eat the best butter chicken? It all started with my understanding – backed by extensive research – that butter chicken was invented as a way to sell last night's tandoori chicken that was now a little dried out. The orthodoxy (challenged by some) is that a young chef, Kundan Lal Jaggi, cooking in the Gora Bazaar in Peshawar had invented the dish. When Partition came in 1947, he and two mates from the restaurant, Kundan Lal Gujral and Thakur Das Mago, moved to Delhi and opened a restaurant, the Moti Mahal. Here this delicious smoky chicken in a sauce singing with tomato, yoghurt, garlic and butter became a hit. I tracked down what was purported to be an original recipe when little was used to spice the dish other than chilli and cumin. And that's where the problems started. You see, Indians take their butter chicken very seriously. An internet storm erupted when I said dried fenugreek leaves weren't used in the original recipe – hundreds posted that I was an idiot for even suggesting it. Some questioned the role of Peshawar in this epic culinary success. Butter chicken is a favourite for Australians - but in India, it's serious business. I was also berated when we had Saransh Goila on MasterChef back in the day – he'd done a pop-up with his butter chicken as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and I had the temerity to say I enjoyed it. Again with the angry emojis. The almost religious fervour butter chicken seems to inspire fuelled my desire to get to Delhi. I arrived to be told by my local expert that the Moti Mahal had been sold to new owners and was now a pale imitation of the original that created not just butter chicken but also the wonderfully rich lentil dish dahl makhani and the tandoori-roasted lamb chop barra kebab. The trouble was a massive legal stoush had erupted between descendants of two of the original partners at the Moti Mahal. They'd both started butter chicken businesses, Moti Mahal Delux and Daryaganj, and had turned to the Delhi High Court – and I'll simplify things here – to decide who had the right to claim their butter chicken was the original (the case drags on as far as I know). So I thought it'd be fun to taste both of the bitter butter chicken rivals on camera with my ol' mate Gary Mehigan and then ask viewers on Instagram to vote for which they liked best. An astonishing 26,439 people voted, but more amazing was that 23 per cent nominated a 'better' butter chicken. Two names were the most suggested: Havemore and Gulati. It was supposed to be simple – go to the place where butter chicken was invented and write about it. Now I had due diligence to do. Next time I was in India, the chef at the restaurant where I was doing a couple of dinners organised couriers to collect 10 of Delhi's most notable versions, including from Moti Mahal Delux (nice cardamom hit) and Daryaganj ('chunky, onions, traditional' are my notes). They were all pretty good – some sweeter, some more tomato forward. The smoky one the chef made was up the top along with the buttery version from Havemore. Gulati was recovering from a fire so it wasn't represented. Yes, this is a saga. India's greatest chef Sanjeev Kapoor described butter chicken to me as 'a restaurant dish' so I felt I needed to taste the favourites in situ. This search continued over the next year when I visited India four more times. Whenever I met someone from Delhi, I'd ask them for the best butter chicken. Gulati and Havemore almost always popped up. Conveniently, the two restaurants are no more than 20m apart in a small neon-lit market off the Pandara Road. On my next visit I went to Havemore and was blown away. Not just by the butter chicken but also the breads and the murgh malai (creamy marinated tandoori chicken that's gnarly at the edges from the oven's heat but still incredibly juicy). None of the six of us dining had ever had butter chicken as good. I ate at the renovated Gulati on my next visit and it too was wonderful – slightly sweeter and more tomatoey. It was too close to call with just the one visit to Havemore so I went back this April. How could I have predicted the looming disaster? Delhi was in the middle of the Navaratri festival when it's typical to adopt the sattvic diet. Meat and grains were off the menu so Havemore was only serving a vegetarian menu. No murgh malai. No garlic naan. No butter chicken. I was crestfallen. Does 15 months on this journey end here? Without the confirmation I crave? If this was a doco we'd cut to an ad break here – and you'd be left holding your breath at the drama of it all. The butter chicken at Havemore restaurant rates as Matt Preston's No.1. As I wandered back to the car one of the waiters rushed out to say they have another Havemore on the other side of the road in Bikaner House, an old mansion that's now a cultural centre. I was elated. The dining room was pumping and the bread and murgh malai were on the menu and as good as at its sister restaurant. And the butter chicken? With two mouthfuls it was confirmed. Even better. I can happily say the butter chicken at the Havemore on Pandara Road is the best I've ever tasted – and when the miffed fans of Gulati and the other great butter chicken versions of Delhi come at me I'll say, 'You do you! But I'm happiest eating the butter chicken at Havemore.' And, boy, will they come! Originally published as Matt Preston fires shot in bitter butter chicken battle
The Advertiser
11 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Pioneering TV chef Peter Russell-Clarke dies aged 89
Chef, artist, writer, illustrator and author Peter Russell-Clarke is being remembered as a pioneer of television cooking after his death at age 89. Russell-Clarke died on Friday - surrounded by his wife of 65 years, Jan, and his children Peter and Wendy and their families - from complications following a stroke. Best known for his 1980s cooking show Come and Get It, Russell-Clarke was born in Ballarat in 1935. The son of an Anglican minister father and dressmaker mother, he was renowned for his Bohemian style of dress - complete with signature neckerchief and artist's smock. Russell-Clarke worked as a creative director in an advertising agency in the 1970s and was a political cartoonist for The Melbourne Herald. He appeared alongside journalist Derryn Hinch in the 1983 film At Last … Bullamakanka: the Motion Picture and ran an unnamed pop-up restaurant in Carlton decades before they became a thing. The author of almost 40 recipe books, Russell-Clarke was also a food ambassador for the United Nations and cooked for dignitaries including the Duke of Edinburgh and the then-Charles, Prince of Wales. His relaxed and informative five-minute cookery show on the ABC - peppered with "g'day", "ripper" and "you beaut" - notched up 900 episodes and spawned his distinctive catch-cry "come and get it". He was also a familiar face on commercial television thanks to his "where's the cheese?" advertisements for the Australian Dairy Corporation. Chef, artist, writer, illustrator and author Peter Russell-Clarke is being remembered as a pioneer of television cooking after his death at age 89. Russell-Clarke died on Friday - surrounded by his wife of 65 years, Jan, and his children Peter and Wendy and their families - from complications following a stroke. Best known for his 1980s cooking show Come and Get It, Russell-Clarke was born in Ballarat in 1935. The son of an Anglican minister father and dressmaker mother, he was renowned for his Bohemian style of dress - complete with signature neckerchief and artist's smock. Russell-Clarke worked as a creative director in an advertising agency in the 1970s and was a political cartoonist for The Melbourne Herald. He appeared alongside journalist Derryn Hinch in the 1983 film At Last … Bullamakanka: the Motion Picture and ran an unnamed pop-up restaurant in Carlton decades before they became a thing. The author of almost 40 recipe books, Russell-Clarke was also a food ambassador for the United Nations and cooked for dignitaries including the Duke of Edinburgh and the then-Charles, Prince of Wales. His relaxed and informative five-minute cookery show on the ABC - peppered with "g'day", "ripper" and "you beaut" - notched up 900 episodes and spawned his distinctive catch-cry "come and get it". He was also a familiar face on commercial television thanks to his "where's the cheese?" advertisements for the Australian Dairy Corporation. Chef, artist, writer, illustrator and author Peter Russell-Clarke is being remembered as a pioneer of television cooking after his death at age 89. Russell-Clarke died on Friday - surrounded by his wife of 65 years, Jan, and his children Peter and Wendy and their families - from complications following a stroke. Best known for his 1980s cooking show Come and Get It, Russell-Clarke was born in Ballarat in 1935. The son of an Anglican minister father and dressmaker mother, he was renowned for his Bohemian style of dress - complete with signature neckerchief and artist's smock. Russell-Clarke worked as a creative director in an advertising agency in the 1970s and was a political cartoonist for The Melbourne Herald. He appeared alongside journalist Derryn Hinch in the 1983 film At Last … Bullamakanka: the Motion Picture and ran an unnamed pop-up restaurant in Carlton decades before they became a thing. The author of almost 40 recipe books, Russell-Clarke was also a food ambassador for the United Nations and cooked for dignitaries including the Duke of Edinburgh and the then-Charles, Prince of Wales. His relaxed and informative five-minute cookery show on the ABC - peppered with "g'day", "ripper" and "you beaut" - notched up 900 episodes and spawned his distinctive catch-cry "come and get it". He was also a familiar face on commercial television thanks to his "where's the cheese?" advertisements for the Australian Dairy Corporation. Chef, artist, writer, illustrator and author Peter Russell-Clarke is being remembered as a pioneer of television cooking after his death at age 89. Russell-Clarke died on Friday - surrounded by his wife of 65 years, Jan, and his children Peter and Wendy and their families - from complications following a stroke. Best known for his 1980s cooking show Come and Get It, Russell-Clarke was born in Ballarat in 1935. The son of an Anglican minister father and dressmaker mother, he was renowned for his Bohemian style of dress - complete with signature neckerchief and artist's smock. Russell-Clarke worked as a creative director in an advertising agency in the 1970s and was a political cartoonist for The Melbourne Herald. He appeared alongside journalist Derryn Hinch in the 1983 film At Last … Bullamakanka: the Motion Picture and ran an unnamed pop-up restaurant in Carlton decades before they became a thing. The author of almost 40 recipe books, Russell-Clarke was also a food ambassador for the United Nations and cooked for dignitaries including the Duke of Edinburgh and the then-Charles, Prince of Wales. His relaxed and informative five-minute cookery show on the ABC - peppered with "g'day", "ripper" and "you beaut" - notched up 900 episodes and spawned his distinctive catch-cry "come and get it". He was also a familiar face on commercial television thanks to his "where's the cheese?" advertisements for the Australian Dairy Corporation.
