Series One: The Red Paintings

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The Red Paintings: an epic mixture of music and art, reality and fantasy, opened up their colourful world for the season finale of the cooking show on Easter Sunday, 2007.

A world of imagination, aliens, religious iconography and political undertones. Rock music with electric violin and cello, and painters, painting to the music, pouring ideas onto their fabric canvases and human canvases.

It’s almost too much to take in. And that’s before you set your eyes on musicians – a band dressed in kimonos and oriental-inspired make-up, led by a man who is somewhat like Willy Wonka, and appears to have stepped out of the pages of a Dr Seuss book.

Ten fans, who had each won a “golden ticket” to the show, came along as guests of the band, adding to the ambience by cramming into the rehearsal room and singing along. Some even dared to lend a hand in the kitchen.

While most of the band stuck to the kitchen to cook for the guests, Trash played host, hanging out, chatting and passing around food. And in between times, he lit the stove.

Ellen commenced construction on her generous ice-cream sundae, layered with wafers and cordial, and dressed with fruit, caramel lollies and chocolates. David rounded up some guests to help with the first part of his entree - “Pig in Poo”. Andy nearly lost an arm chopping garlic and Amanda spotted a cat on the kitchen table…

Amanda and Andy started cooking: Amanda making a vegetarian dish (that she refused to eat), and Andy tackling garlic prawns, cooked for the first time ever, and featuring cream and coconut milk. The two chatted about eggplant, kimonos, prawns, drains and fishing as the prawns curdled away.

Trash, David and Ellen gave a premiere acoustic performance of “We Belong in the Sea” from the piano in an upstairs bedroom, where everyone crammed in to listen.

David gave the prawns the thumbs up, wrapping some in pastry as the second part of his mammoth entrée.

Trash came into the kitchen to take a break from the craziness, with stories of fans sniffing his sheets, and a rock from outer space, before heading back out to share around the pig in poo, prawns and stir-fry. But it wasn’t until the ice-cream sundae came out to a round of applause that the guests’ enthusiasm for the food came to the fore. The party moved outside, and the sundae was demolished in a snap.

Meanwhile, work on David’s mammoth entrée continued on, as he expanded upon his pastry-wrapped treats with a selection of random ingredients. The prune prawn. Rockmelon and basil. Bacon and basil. Strawberries. Easter eggs. Caramel lollies. Possibly soy sauce. And even the threat of a fingernail…

Some sweet, some savoury. “You could feed them to anyone and they’d love it”. A theory later tested when the pastries were shared around.

But what of the end? The revolution is never coming.

Goodnight Australia!