Peter Everett pilots new show, Eat with Pete.

There was famously an outpouring from viewers when he was unceremoniously dumped from Ready Steady Cook in 2011 but host Peter Everett is back.

Sort of. If he has his way.

Everett’s departure from the show is still the most commented story on TV Tonight, twice over, but he’s hopeful a new pilot Eat With Pete will herald his return.

The premise is simple…. the loveable, splashy host with crew in tow surprises people in their kitchen and proceeds to whip up a dish from ingredients in their own pantry.

It’s kamikaze chop-and-chat for the effervescent host with a legion of loyal fans.

“I’m more chat, than chopping! But I love to get in the kitchen and just create,” he tells TV Tonight.

“The important thing I learned from the show is that if you have a good larder, all the products, then you can just play and create your own dishes. There’s no wrong or right. Just experiment.

“A lot more people, especially over the last couple of years from what people have been telling me, have been quite adventurous in their cooking style. That’s wonderful!”

Yet to be pitched to networks, Eat With Pete has sprung to life from a collective of former Ready Steady Cook crew members, 11 years after they last worked with Everett.

“Why is Pete Everett not doing anything?'”

“The cameraman, an editor, a sound guy…. different ones said ‘Pete, every time we say when we worked at Ready Steady Cook, we all go: Why is Pete Everett not doing anything?’

“So they all got together and said, ‘We’re gonna do something with you. You tell us what you want to do and we’ll do it for you.’

“So, we did a little show and they edited it and everyone just did it for free. I’ve had a couple of meetings with people in Melbourne, big companies, and they’re looking at maybe sponsoring it. But slowly, slowly…”

Ready Steady Cook was nominated 4 times for Logie’s Best Lifestyle Program -a first for a daytime show. Amongst its guests were Manu Feildel, Shane Delia, Matt Golinski, Miguel Maestre, George Calombaris, plus Ita Buttrose, Marcia Hines, Kyle Sandilands, Sandra Sully, Anh Do, Gina Riley, Craig McLachlan, Dr. Chris Brown, Angela Bishop, Craig Lowndes, Anthony Callea and many more.

“That show had 45,000 viewers when I took over. They said, ‘Do what you want’ so I redid the show and in the first three months, we were up to 120,000. When I left it was 350,000. That was a lot of people for a daytime show,” he recalls.

“It’s time to have some fun!”

“People tell me they miss the time slot of 2 to 3pm. It’s a valuable time slot, especially when it works. It sounds arrogant, but I don’t see this as being a risk. It’s time to have some fun!”

By the look of first comments on a Peter Everett Channel on YouTube, it seems there are fans ready to follow him on his next escapades.

Producers are also hoping a possible series could travel around Australia.

“If we can get some funding, it’d be fun to have a Jeep and go into the town and search for people who’d like to be on the show,” Everett explains.

“You’d be able to use the produce. I just come back from the Grampians discovering all these areas, like Pinnaroo with the potato growers, or the rhubarb growing people. There’s a wonderful small industry and they’re doing really well overseas. It’s important to showcase these people.

“If you don’t have the country people you don’t have the city”

“I was born in western Queensland and I’ve always realised if you don’t have the country people you don’t have the city. I’m very passionate about the country folk.”

Everet, who nominates Adam Liaw and the late Anthony Bourdain as favourite TV chefs,  hopes that the ‘cheap and cheeerful’ style of Eat with Pete will still showcase his personality (“it’s a strength to be vulnerable”) as well as that of the subjects whose kitchen he plans to doorknock.

Based on early scenes with his skeleton crew, Eat with Pete hasn’t seen him lose any of his unique humour.

“Some of the people were a bit nervous that I was trying to break in….”