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Pioneering TV chef Peter Russell-Clarke dies aged 89

By AAP Newswire

Jul 6, 2025

PETER RUSSELL CLARKE OBIT — Television chef, artist and author Peter Russell-Clarke has died aged 89. -AAP Image

Chef, artist, writer, illustrator and author Peter Russell-Clarke is being remembered as a pioneer of television cooking after his death at age 89.

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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.