Peter Russell-Clarke: family planning with eggs

One of our first celebrity chefs, Peter Russell-Clarke had his own show on the ABC, the bite-sized Come and Get It. He also appeared in a series of ads for the South Australian Egg Board, intended as a counterweight to studies that claimed eggs caused high cholesterol.  

This 'Family Planning' ad, featuring a live chicken, perfectly encapsulates the elements that made Russell-Clarke a hit. There’s the jocularity, the out-of-nowhere chuckle, the low-key innuendo, and a thoroughly approachable attitude to cooking. He modelled unfussy, low-cost eating, and advocated for farmers and the use of fresh ingredients while Australian cuisine was still struggling out of the Jello salad era. 

However, his 1983 suggestion for a family dinner – Scotch eggs loaded with sausage meat and deep-fried – is still gloriously of its time.