Cooking mums score TV show

8 May 2008

| By Julie Gatehouse

Best-selling cookbook authors Rachael Bermingham and Kim McCosker didn’t think their lives could get much more chaotic after 60 parents and kids came to a birthday party for Rachael’s toddler son in her Buderim backyard a few weekends ago and the TV show A Current Affair joined in.

But, in Rachael’s words, “it’s gone from busy to ballistic”.

The mum of a three-year-old and stepmum to two teenage girls and her friend Kim, a heavily pregnant mum of two boys, are now shooting their own TV show for cable’s The Lifestyle Channel.

“How on earth did two girls with no culinary experience, and who are not even that passionate about cooking – we are passionate about eating though – end up with a cooking show?” she laughs after finally removing her thick TV make-up after a day on set.

That set certainly is an enjoyable workplace – the producers have hired a luxury apartment at Sunrise Beach.

“It overlooks the ocean, it’s like a dream,” said Rachael, who hit the big time with Kim after the unexpected massive success of their book 4 Ingredients.

“We are so stunned. We had 12 different TV production companies chasing us.”

“Most of the crew have flown up from Sydney.

“It will cost over $1 million to make this show,” she said.

“We’ve got a dresser and a make-up artist ... even a driver who picks us up at 7.30 every morning.”

The six-part series, called 4 Ingredients, will premiere in September, coinciding with the duo’s second book, 4 Ingredients 2.

Baking more than 400 recipes for the new book has been quite a task for Rachael, 37, whose ex-miner husband Paul is now renovating their Buderim house, and Kim, 38, who has moved from Brisbane to Pelican Waters with her husband Glen and is due to give birth in seven weeks.

Rachael said the second book, now at draft stage, sticks to the theme of using only four ingredients for each recipe and incorporates feedback from their book signings across Australia and New Zealand.

“We’re all after more time and more money, so we look at how to get more out of your day,” she says.

“We’re not chefs making a culinary masterpiece, but we have practical experience to put regular, everyday food that is fabulous, fast and flavoursome on that dinner table.’’

The celebrity authors this week left the Sunrise Beach set for “on location” cooking across the Coast. The fun continues for several weeks.

Will their show be anything like the current cooking shows, from Gordon Ramsay’s gung ho kitchen nightmares to jovial Huey, down-to-earth Jamie Oliver or the diverse approaches of The Cook and The Chef? “No, we’re just playing ourselves on set,” Rachael said. “It’s cooking for real people.”

And definitely no Ramsay-isms. “My three-year-old would go ‘Mum you swore, that’s naughty!’” Rachael laughs.

Kim said she’s delighted that their concept of simple food “has gone on to help so many others throughout Australia and overseas to save time and money in the kitchen”.

Rachael, with marketing and publicity experience, and Kim, with financial planning experience, confirm what success has meant to their families.

“The whole 4 Ingredients journey has changed our lives in terms of our families’ financial future – and our families’ family!

“What makes our heart sing is that we did this to make our lives easier and it’s helping a stack of other people’s lives too.”

If you want to suggest a recipe for inclusion in the book, particularly catering to diabetics or gluten-free, go the website www.4ingredients.com.au .

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