Ready, steady...COOK!

Superstars of TV.

If you've been living in a bloody vacuum of late, you wouldn't have known that Clare & I ventured onto the set of channel 10's Ready Steady Cook. You also wouldn't have known that this is all part of my 2007 Man Plan to appear on every Australian commercial TV station by year's end.

Clare was paired up with George Calombaris and I with Jared Ingersoll. We had to go in the previous day to observe basic proceedings - obviously a protocol to ensure that people have a rough idea of what actually goes on behind the scenes so they don't freak out by all of the booms, cameras et al around the place.

The preview was marked by several notable occurrences:

• A troupe of boisterous ladies, kitted out in their red hats and mauve dresses. An extremely vocal bunch resembling a group of schoolgirls, the Red Backs Chapter of the Australian Red Hats Society (I can't believe I found them online) made the day most memorable. They may also have scared the shit out of the producers.
• The massive American lady wearing a mu-mu who, when thrown a Mars Bar by the audience warm-up guy, struggled to bend over and pick up said Mars Bar due to her extended girth. I think she gave up after about 8 minutes.
• Aforementioned fat mu-mu wearing lady, hungry students, and tight-ass pensioners rushing for the free cordial and biscuits prior to the show.
• The outspoken bogan transvestite in front of us who argued with another woman in front of her as to the language of 'baby'. That is, what kind of sound a baby makes when it is hungry, uncomfortable etc.

We came in the next day, filmed the show and won some fabulous prizes - Clare a blender and me 6 bottles of wine. Glad I got the wine. I love the magic of TV - we had to do 4 takes of us 'being surprised/thrilled' by the prizes we were awarded, as the host kept stumbling over his autocue. Other thrills, spills and chills included:

• Me throwing meringue all over the kitchen with the electric beaters
• Nearly putting a handful of coriander in a pot when my chef asked for parsley
• Plugging my Nan and Mum on national TV
• Falsifying my excitement about a particular dish which featured brown lentils, just for the punters at home (and the chef with a knife in his hand)
• Clare's natural talent for TV - she was amazingly relaxed and came across really well
• Getting our makeup done with Nat-ar-sha Belling, who's apparently a massive fan of the blog

Not too sure as yet when the episode will go to air - they said they'd give us about a week's notice. In the meantime, is there ANYONE out there with some sort of digital recording equipment that I could arrange to tape it. Or does anyone know of anyone who may have access? Please post a comment, email, or call me. I'll cut up the good bits and post it on here.

You'll have to wait and see what we made when the episode goes to air...

Thanks especially to my little sister Amelia who came to watch us on the day.

Clare won