Rick Stein

Rick Stein
Born (1947-01-04) 4 January 1947
Churchill, Oxfordshire, England
Education Uppingham School
New College, Oxford
Children 3
Website rickstein.com

Culinary career

Christopher Richard "Rick" Stein OBE (born 4 January 1947) is an English celebrity chef, restaurateur and television presenter. He is Head Chef and co-owner of "Rick Stein at Bannisters" at Mollymook, New South Wales, Australia,[1] and owns four restaurants in Padstow, a fish and chip shop in Falmouth, Cornwall and fish and chip shops in Porthleven and Newquay, Cornwall. He has written a number of cookery books and has presented a number of television programmes.

Early years

Of German descent, Stein was born on 4 January 1947 in Churchill, Oxfordshire, to Eric and Dorothy Stein.[2]

Stein was educated at Wells Court, a preparatory school just outside Tewkesbury,[3] then Wells House, the Court's bigger sister-school at Malvern Wells, and then Uppingham School. He took A-levels in English, history and geography, but failed all of them. He moved to a cram school in Brighton, gaining E grades in English and history.

Stein partially completed a hotel management traineeship with British Transport Hotels at its Great Western Royal Hotel in Paddington.[4] He worked there as a chef for six months. Distraught by his father's suicide, at age 19 he went to Australia, where he worked as a labourer in an abattoir and as a clerk in a naval dockyard. He travelled to New Zealand and Mexico around that time to "take some time out".[5]

Being on his own, he read widely, reflected on his attitude to education, and applied successfully to New College, Oxford; he earned an English degree in 1971. Shortly after that, he moved to Padstow.[6]

Career

Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant, Padstow

After graduating, he converted a mobile disco in Padstow, which he had run as a student, into a quayside nightclub with his friend, Johnny. It became known for its freeze-dried curries. However, the nightclub lost its licence and was closed down by the police, mainly due to frequent brawls with local fishermen. The pair still had a licence for a restaurant in another part of the building, so they continued with that to avert bankruptcy.[6][5] Stein ran the kitchen using the experience he had gained as a commis chef. Eventually he converted it into a small harbour-side bistro, The Seafood Restaurant with his wife Jill in 1975.[7] As of 2015, his business operates four restaurants, a bistro, a cafe, a seafood delicatessen, a patisserie shop, a gift shop and a cookery school.[8] His impact on the economy of Padstow is such that it has been nicknamed "Padstein".[9] In 2007 threats against Rick Stein's businesses were made by Cornish nationalists.[10]

In 2009 Stein made his first acquisition in the nearby village of St Merryn, 3.5 miles from Padstow, taking over the Cornish Arms public house on the village's outskirts, intending to keep it as a traditional Cornish pub.[11]

In October 2009, Stein and his fianceé, the publicist Sarah Burns, opened "Rick Stein at Bannisters" in Mollymook, on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Rick said at the time of opening, "Ever since a memorable weekend eating Pambula oysters and flathead in Merimbula in the sixties, I've had the image of the clean blue sea and sweet seafood of the South Coast fixed in my head so when I was introduced to Mollymook about six years ago I knew that one day I would open up a restaurant celebrating local fish and shellfish but keeping it really simple."[1]

In November 2014, Stein and his partner Jill took over the lease of the former "Clay Quay" restaurant by Porthleven's harbour, renaming it "Rick Stein".[12]

Stein has become a popular television presenter on food. After appearing on Keith Floyd's 1984 series Floyd On Fish as a guest chef, he was offered the chance to present his own series – like the "travelogue" style of cookery show pioneered by Floyd – on BBC television. His shows have included Rick Stein's Taste of the Sea, Fruits of the Sea, Seafood Odyssey, Fresh Food, Seafood Lovers' Guide, Food Heroes, French Odyssey, Mediterranean Escapes, Far Eastern Odyssey, Rick Stein's Spain and Rick Stein's India. In the last five series, he set out in search of the best in the region's foods.[13] Until 2007, Stein was often accompanied by his Jack Russell terrier, Chalky.[14]

A book has accompanied each series, and his book English Seafood Cookery won the Glenfiddich Award for Food Book of the Year in 1989. Stein was awarded the OBE in the 2003 New Year Honours list for services to tourism in Cornwall.[15]

Personal life

Rick Stein in a 2006 cookery demonstration, in Melbourne, Australia

Stein spends part of the year in Padstow, and part in Sydney with his second wife, Sarah Stein (née Burns) and her two children. He met her in Australia in 1997 when she was working for the publisher HarperCollins. They married on 7 October 2011.[16] He has three sons from his first marriage to his business partner, Jill Stein (née Newstead): Edward, Jack and Charles.[17] They married in Cornwall in 1975, separated on 21 July 2002,[18] and their divorce was granted on 8 June 2007.[19]

When Stein was eighteen his father committed suicide in Cornwall after suffering from bipolar disorder.[20] Stein's brother John teaches and researches dyslexia and neurophysiology at Oxford University, where he is a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He has a sister, Henrietta, and a half brother, Jeremy, from his mother's first marriage.

The food business built up by Stein and his former wife Jill is valued at £32 million and employs approximately 450 people in Padstow.[8]

Rick Stein is the uncle of the DJ Judge Jules.

Charity work

Rick Stein is Patron of the charities Padstow Youth Project, South West PESCA (Duchy Fish Quota Co.), the National Mission for Deep Sea Fishermen, the National Coastwatch Institution, the Dyslexia Research Trust and The National Trust.

Publications

TV

DVDs

Other awards

For the restaurant:

For the man:

References

  1. 1 2 "Rick Stein at Bannisters". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  2. ↑ "Rick Stein signs books in city". Oxford Mail. 23 July 2011.
  3. ↑ Sale, Jonathan (2 November 2000). "An Education in the Life of Rick Stein, Master Chef". The Independent.
  4. ↑ "Caterer and Hotelkeeper 100: Rick Stein, the Seafood Restaurant". Caterer and Hotelkeeper. 6 December 2012.
  5. 1 2 "Rick Stein - Celebrity Angels". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  6. 1 2 "A fishy twist in the tale of two rothers", Oxford Today, Volume 22 No 3, Trinity 2010, archived from the original on 6 October 2013 Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ↑ "The Seafood Restaurant - Rick & Jill Stein's restaurant in Padstow". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  8. 1 2 "BBC Lifestyle". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  9. ↑ "The battle of 'Padstein': TV chef Rick Stein at war with the locals". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  10. ↑ Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator; Lohan; Iss; Nasa; Google; purity, Brexit threatens Cornish pasty's racial; home, Grim-faced 'naut Malenchenko prepares to return; $1m+, One entire US spook base: Yours for. "Cornish separatists menace Jamie Oliver". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  11. ↑ "Rick's food empire reels in village pub". 11 April 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  12. ↑ "We're opening a restaurant in Porthleven". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  13. ↑ "BBC Shop US & Canada - DVDs, Blu-rays & Best of British TV". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  14. ↑ "Celebrity chef Stein's dog dies". BBC News. 16 January 2007. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  15. ↑ Debrett's – Rick Stein
  16. ↑ "Rick Stein weds PR girl 20 years his junior after breaking up with his wife of 27 years". Mail Online. 8 October 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  17. ↑ "Find out about Rick Stein restaurants and more". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  18. ↑ Savill, Richard (22 July 2002). "TV chef Rick Stein and wife split after 30 years". The Telegraph.
  19. ↑ "Rick Stein divorced". Daily Mirror. 8 June 2007.
  20. ↑ Viner, Brian (24 August 2002), "Rick Stein: The chef in a pickle, yearning for the simple things in life", The Independent, archived from the original on 24 January 2009
  21. ↑ "View the full CatererSearch 100". The Caterer. May 11, 2005. Retrieved 2016-08-21.

External links

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