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Australian TV chef Peter Russell-Clarke dies aged 89 following stroke complications

Jul 5, 2025

Australian pioneering TV chef Peter Russell-Clarke has died aged 89 after suffering complications from a stroke.

His death was confirmed to nine.com.au by his long-time friend Beverley Pinder.

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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 01: Peter Russell-Clarke is an Australian chef, author and illustrator, best known for his television cooking shows. He hosted a five-minute television show called Come and Get It, which aired on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for nine years during the 1980s.Melbourne.January 01 1990 in Melbourne, Australia (Photo by Impressions / Getty Images)

“His health had been failing the past couple of years. However, he had a stroke, and there was some complications from that, but peacefully, he passed away,” Pinder said.

Pinder confirmed Russell-Clarke was surrounded by his wife Jan and children Peter and Wendy when he died on Friday at his farm in Toobarac, Victoria.

“Many people will tell you that Peter was brusque. Peter had a short temper, a short fuse. Yes, he did. But you know what?” she added.

“He overrode every one of those grits because he gave so much of himself to any project that he undertook.”

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Peter Russell-Clarke on the importance of colour in painting and cooking

Their mutual friend Derryn Hinch is also mourning his loss.

He told nine.com.au of the veteran TV chef: ”He really was our first TV chef … He was a lovable rogue.

“He could be annoying, but he was so clever and so talented. His talent was he made it look so easy when he was doing difficult things.”

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Peter Russell-Clarke on his show Come and Get it

Hinch, who starred with Russell-Clarke in the 1983 film At Last … Bullamakanka: The Motion Picture admires him for his quirks.

He recalled that Russell-Clarke “taught me how to put crushed pepper on fresh strawberries, which sounds weird, but it works.

“I remember once, years and years ago, he cooked a steak for Prince Charles and put fruit on it, which was unheard of on those days.”

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Hinch said his friend “had a recent stroke”

“He had had memory and brain problems as well. So it was time,” he added.

“His health had deteriorated terribly in recent months, and I’m a great believer, when you have no quality of life, and it’s time to go … In the end, it was was a mercy that he went.”

Russell-Clarke was best known for his five minute cooking show Come and Get It, airing during the ’70s and ’80s. The show lasted 900 episodes.

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Peter Russell-Clarke

Along with the show’s title, he used many memorable expressions such as  “g’days”, “rippers”, “you beauts”, and “Where’s the cheese?” as he taught Aussies how to cook.

He was not just a cook and TV icon, but also dabbled in art, writing, and even acting.

For some time he was a political cartoonist for The Melbourne Herald, worked as a creative director at a top advertising agency.

Also on his resume is running a pop-up restaurant in Carlton, and writing almost 40 recipe books.

For his contributions to cooking he was named a food ambassador for the UN.

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