Popular chef Rick Stein tells Nicky Pellegrino about his road to fame
A passion for seafood has turned Rick Stein into one of the world's top celebrity chefs with restaurants, shops, TV shows and cookbooks to his name. But when in New Zealand next month for his first theatre show, Rick Stein's Food Odyssey, Stein says he'll be looking back to the days when he owned a failing nightclub in the Cornish fishing village of Padstow.
"I was in my mid-20s and had this crazy idea of a nightclub but it was collapsing round my ears," he says. "Also I was in trouble with the locals because there were a lot of pubs in Padstow and they didn't like losing their lock-in trade."
Stein wasn't even a chef at that point. But he needed a plan and so, with a few basic skills picked up while working as a trainee hotel manager and a conviction that the fish in Cornwall were something special, he set out to convert his nightclub into what remains, 35 years on, his flagship eatery - The Seafood Restaurant.
"The recipes were taken from books or inspired by trips to France," Stein says. "In the early days things did go wrong and it wasn't the restaurant it is today. We were flying by the seat of our pants a lot of the time. I'd converted the restaurant single-handedly, doing all the building, wiring and plumbing myself. Our repertoire was small and the decor basic - I'd hung up fishing nets I'd borrowed and filled them with scallop and lobster shells. So it wasn't all that special but the thing I had going for me was I had an understanding about buying fresh fish and cooking it simply. And I haven't looked back really."
Stein is grateful to have been able to develop at his own pace without today's financial pressures. "It cost us £20,000 to set up The Seafood Restaurant, not the half a million people are spending now. I think that's why in London there's this trend for pop-up restaurants because most chefs don't have the capital to start their own place."
Today Stein has so many businesses in Padstow that the village is fondly known as Padstein. At the last count there were four restaurants, three shops, a cook school, guest accommodation and another pub just down the road in St Merryn.
While still very much involved in his Cornish enterprises, the prolific celebrity chef has been spending more time in this part of the world since becoming engaged to Australian publicist Sarah Burns, even opening a restaurant in Bannisters Hotel in Mollymook on the south coast of New South Wales.
Both the South Pacific seafood and our attitude to cooking excite Stein. "The fish is excellent and it's a pleasure to be working with all the different species," he says. "In my books I always tried to give equivalents to the British fish I was using so now it's exciting to be cooking with it. The majority is Australian but we do use some New Zealand fish in the restaurant: snapper, monkfish and hapuku, which is really good because the fillets are so thick."
When he first visited here in the 90s, Stein thought we were streets ahead in terms of our approach to food. "The UK is starting to catch up now," he says. "But my first exciting indication that food was changing came from trips to Australia and New Zealand. There were all these young chefs bringing in Mediterranean and South Asian influences and they had a real commitment to cooking. What I like about this part of the world is there's no real culinary heritage apart from some rather boring British food, so it's an empty canvas."
Stein's live theatre show will include a chat with Close Up presenter Mark Sainsbury, who he befriended last year while cooking a dinner at the luxury Cape Kidnappers lodge in Hawke's Bay. Plus he'll be cooking up several dishes from classic Padstow favourites to Mediterranean and Southeast Asian food.
"I'll be nervous on the night," he says, "but I do a lot of talking at demonstrations ... and I've had enough experience to know it can work. I'll be a bit like a stand-up comic. It would be helpful if the audience could have a glass of wine before they come in, though. I know I'll definitely need one."
NZ dates
* Rick Stein's Food Odyssey - at Auckland's ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, on August 4 and 5; and Wellington's St James Theatre on August 7 and 8. To book in Auckland, phone 0800 BUY TICKETS or visit buytickets.co.nz. To book in Wellington, phone 0800 TICKETEK or visit ticketek.co.nz.
Win $5000 in kitchen appliances
Watching Rick Stein's Food Odyssey on stage is bound to have home cooks eager to recreate his delicious dishes in their own kitchens.
To help that happen, we have a fantastic prize pack from tour sponsor Breville to give away to one lucky reader - more than $5000 in kitchen appliances. The prize includes a Breville slow cooker, food processor, espresso machine, mixer, grill, juicer, kettle, toaster, blender, breadmaker and mini oven.
In other words, pretty much everything you could possibly need.
To enter, email your name and contact details to detours@heraldonsunday.co.nz with Breville in the subject line, to reach us by 5pm on July 29. Only one entry from each person.
For full conditions click here.
