Presenters
Annette McFarlane
Annette first studied horticulture in Melbourne, gaining initial practical experience in various parts of Australia and New Zealand. She moved to her version of gardening paradise in Brisbane’s subtropical climate more than twenty five years ago and is currently senior lecturer in horticulture at the Grovely TAFE Horticultural College in Brisbane.
Radio listeners throughout south east Queensland regularly tune in to hear her words of wisdom each Saturday morning from 6.30am – 7.45am during Gardening Talkback on ABC Radio 612 4QR.
Annette contributes regularly to a variety of horticultural publications and is currently a garden feature writer for Gardening Australia’s, The Organic Gardener, Burke’s Backyard Magazine, Your Garden, Sunday Mail and Brisbane News.
She is the author of three titles. Her most recent book, Organic Vegetable Gardening is published by ABC Books. Annette publishes an independent gardening information service on the web at www.annettemcfarlane.com
Trevor was always fascinated by nature as child and growing up on a dairy farm developed his passion for all things natural and as he got older this grew into a genuine love of horticulture and the local environment. A qualified horticulturalist he has worked as a professional plant grower, a garden centre retailer, a garden consultant, developed business strategies and designed and built garden centres for Australia’s largest garden retailer and as worked a landscape designer.
He started working in the media as a gardening writer and television presenter on a local television program called Good Morning Perth at the tender age of 21 and has since worked in all areas of public communications including radio, press, magazines, television and speaking publicly at various gardening events around the country. He is the host and executive producer of The Garden Gurus alongside long time friend Neville Passmore and he also hosts the travel show The Gurus Explore which is also telecast on the Nine Network Australia, Win Television, NBN Television and has presented on New Zealand TV 1. He writes for garden industry journals, the Sunday Times newspaper, The Garden Guru newspaper and provides expert advice via a consultancy to the Water Corporation in Western Australia on water efficient gardening issues. He is the co-author of several best selling gardening book titles including Gardening Western Australia, The Garden Gurus Guide to Waterwise Gardening, Delish from garden to table, The Australian Gardeners Yearbook and recently The Rose the latest, the greatest.
He also designs award winning gardens for The Garden Gurus garden design and landscape business which has offices in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. This of course when he’s not developing his own 1.5 acre piece of paradise located in the Darling Ranges where he grows over 150 different edible plants and collects rare and unusual species for his garden. The Garden is still his passion and a source of the freshest and most nutritious produce which is shared with his wife Shiori and boys Daniel, Will, Harri and Kai.
In 2007 the Gurus team travelled well over 1 million kilometres experiencing many fascinating overseas destinations, visiting some of the world’s greatest garden shows and filming in every state in Australia whilst producing over 165 episodes of television for Australian television. In 2008 The Garden Gurus television show has been elevated into a truly national television series and The Gurus Explore has been made into a 12 week series broadcast across Australia, starting in October. The Gurus are also planning to launch a brand new TV series all about the freshest most delicious food called Delish mid-year and hope to get a new children’s gardening program called Garden Guru Kids off the ground in 2008. Trev and Nev will also release three new books this year including a hardback called Explore featuring the fabulous destinations they visited in 2007 and a revised version Waterwise Gardening.
Peter Everett comes to Ready Steady Cook with a passion for food and a passion for life. Although he counts cooking as a major hobby (he makes a great Thai salad) Peter is not a chef. He therefore “de-jargons the chef-speak”, asks lots of questions, and generally acts as a link between the audience and the professional chefs, making the show both extremely entertaining and educational.
Peter is well known as the interior designer who, after being told by Princess Diana’s clairvoyant in London in 1996 that he would end up on TV, found himself on that very medium on home renovation programs including Changing Rooms, Renovation Rescue and Amazing Homes for the Nine Network.
But there’s much more to Peter than renovating. Peter grew up “an outback kid” in Charleville, central Queensland. A natural entertainer, he moved to Brisbane as a teen and joined a singing group. He spent years travelling and living in the U.S. and Hong Kong before settling in Sydney to run the Queen Street Brasserie.
Apart from cooking, his hobbies include yoga, photography and horse riding.
Peter Everett loves food and he loves an audience, so filming in front of RSC’s studio audience makes hosting his third series of Ready Steady Cook a dream job for this fun-loving and lovable personality.
Janelle Bloom is one of this countries most loved food writers and authors. Her approach to food is very evident in the pages of magazines, mushroom growers leaflets and in her appearances on Ready Steady Cook. She wants to spread the word that cooking is fun and easy although this is not always the case, she says, when you have just 20 minutes to cook a feast from a bag of secret ingredients!
Janelle believes cooking begins with confidence and a little patience, and good quality fresh produce, she is passionate that her recipes are foolproof, easy to follow, use ingredients that are easy to obtain, in season and taste as good as they look.
Janelle sees her role as an educator, teaching people about new ingredients and showing them simple and quick ways of putting great food on the table for every meal.
2008 is looking like a great year for Janelle, she will launch her first cookbook in years published by Random House and on the shelf early November. ‘I have been working on this book for over 5 years, it will include my all time favourite recipes all beautifully photographed, I cant wait too see it on the shelf!’ As well as writing the book and appearing on ready steady cook, Janelle can be heard Sunday afternoons 4pm till 6pm on Radio 2UE with Glenn Wheeler.
2008 wont be all work, there is plenty of time for fun, while Janelle loves to read, swim, exercise (to work off all the food she eats) and cook of course, Janelle will continue to work as a volunteer in the community donating as much time each week as she can to her favourite cause Ronald Mcdonald House.
When asked to tell us her thoughts on Ready Steady Cook, Janelle says ‘it is challenging and choatic, but the most fun she's ever had in a kitchen and the best job I have ever had’!
Phil Dudman
Rockhampton Showgrounds 19th and 20th April 2008
