This blog was written by guest blogger, Pete Evans host of Channel 9's TV Show Fresh.
Pete is also co-ownder of the Hugo's group of restaurants visit www.hugos.com.au to learn more.

The joys of filming a cooking show; here I am at the old quarantine station in the Sydney suburb of Manly and it is pissing down with rain outside, so filming has been put on hold temporarily. Which is sometimes very frustrating, but it gives me time to catch up on emails and doing things like this great blog that Benjamin has thought up - always thinking that boy…well done Benjamin.

Benjamin suggested I write a few words about what it is like to film an episode of Fresh cooking show. It’s a good question as most people have a different idea of what it is really like. My cooking show for instance airs 5 days a week, 42 weeks per year and each episode requires 4 recipes, which is a lot of recipes.

I’ve an amazing team behind me that create the recipes, test the recipes and prepare everything for me on the day of shooting in the studio. We generally cook about 20 recipes in a 6-8 hour period with guest cooks, nutritionists and celebrities and each ranging from 3 minutes to about 6 minutes. The floor manager tells me how long I have and I usually receive the recipes a day or a few days before hand to acquaint myself with them and make any necessary changes, which are usually none.

We cook each recipe in one take, it isn’t scripted and is a lot of fun with a lot of pressure to get it right first time. We aim at a broad audience and try to educate people on what is new, healthy eating and good tasting food. The biggest buzz is when people tell you they love the recipes and cook it for their family - that is what being a TV chef is all about in my view.

We go on location every few weeks or so and that is the highlight for me as we get to meet producers, chefs and visit some amazing locations like the one i am in today - which in fact is meant to be haunted and the producer who shot listed the tapes yesterday says their was a ghost hovering over my shoulder in one shot - will have to wait and see for myself on that one…i think she is pulling my leg - but a girl here said she saw one a few weeks ago in the middle of the day!!! Gotta love a cooking show with spirit.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Cheers
Pete Evans

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

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