Extreme Cooking

Get to Know the Renowned Chef and Author Rick Stein

Rick Stein is an extremely well-known restaurateur, chef, and television host in England. He is also one of the most well-known chefs in the country. Rick is known for his expertise in cooking seafood, but he has demonstrated through his series Food Heroes that he is equally passionate about the finest produce that Britain has to offer, irrespective of the source from which it originates. He also revealed a passion for the French way of life and the way that food is intimately tied in with the culture in his most recent series, French Odyssey. 

Early Years and Childhood

  • Christopher Richard Stein was born on January 4, 1947, in Oxfordshire to parents Eric Stein and Dorothy Stein. He was given the name Christopher Richard Stein. John, one of his brothers, and Henrietta and Janey, two of his sisters, are among his siblings. In addition, his mother was previously married, so he also has a half-brother who goes by the name of Jeremy.

  • First, he received his education at Wells Court, which is considered to be a preparatory school. Subsequently, he attended Wells House, Uppingham School, and finally, he attended a cram school in Brighton.

  • He had a privileged and idyllic childhood as he grew up on a farm in the Cotswold area where he was raised. However, Rick's father, Eric, who worked as the managing director of a distilling company, suffered from bipolar disorder and killed himself when Rick was only 17 years old.

  • Not long after that, Rick started his traineeship in hotel management with British Transport Hotels at the Great Western Royal Hotel, which is located in Paddington. He was employed there in the kitchen.

  • Rick's emotional state was in disarray after the death of his father, so he decided to leave his job and move to Australia, where he found work as a laborer in an abattoir and as a clerk in a naval dockyard. After that, he went on an excursion to both New Zealand and Mexico.

  • After relocating back to the United Kingdom, he enrolled at New College, Oxford to pursue a degree in English, which he received in 1971.

An Acclaimed Chef

Acclaimed chef
Before he became a multi-award winning chef, Rick Stein did not always have the goal of becoming one. After receiving his degree in English from Oxford University, he worked as the manager of a nightclub for a few years before deciding to purchase his own establishment in Padstow.In later years, Rick established a restaurant that specialized in serving fish (supplied by the fishermen who had once frequented his club). Over the course of more than 25 years, he has managed the Seafood Restaurant. Since those early days, the Steins have expanded their Padstow venture to include additional local restaurants, shops, and a takeaway establishment.Rick has been honored with a number of accolades for his work in the culinary industry as an educator, presenter, and author. At 10 Downing Street, he prepared meals on two separate occasions for Tony Blair, as well as for the late Jacques Chirac, a former president of France, as well as for Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip. In recognition of his contributions to the tourism industry in the West Country, Rick received an OBE in January of 2003.

The Stein Business

 

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Rick made his name in the 1990s with his earliest books and television series based on his life as chef and owner of The Seafood Restaurant (established in 1975) in the fishing port of Padstow. Rick is best known for his love of fresh, simple seafood. He made his name in the 1990s with these books and series. According to what he stated at the time, "nothing is more exhilarating than fresh fish simply cooked," which is an ideology by which he has both lived his life and run his restaurants. Since then, this has expanded to include 10 restaurants, 40 hotel rooms, self-catering accommodation, self-catering accommodation, four shops, and a cookery school, in addition to an online business that includes Stein's at Home food boxes and Stein's Online Fishmongers. Over 650 people are employed by the Stein business, which has expanded beyond Cornwall to include establishments in Winchester, Sandbanks, Marlborough, and Barnes in the city of London. Rick continues to serve as the CEO of The Rick Stein Group, which also includes his ex-wife Jill and their three sons, Edward, Jack, and Charlie. 

Rick and his wife, Sarah, are the proprietors of two restaurants in Australia: the first one, Rick Stein Bannisters, was established in Mollymawk, New South Wales, in 2009, and the second one, Bannisters, was opened in Port Stephens, New South Wales, in 2018.

Rick and Sarah launched a line of home and kitchenware in 2017 under the name Coves of Cornwall. The crockery was part of a blue and white range that featured the topography of Rick's favorite beaches.

Rick is also well-known for combining his love of food and travel in a number of popular television shows, including "Road to Mexico," "Secret France," and "Venice to Istanbul." During COVID, when he was unable to travel outside of the country, Rick Stein produced a series called Rick Stein's Cornwall, which premiered in January 2021. The show was an overwhelming success, and the BBC immediately commissioned a second season of it, which also achieved excellent viewing figures when it premiered in January 2022.

Rick and Sarah Stein established Rick Stein Productions Ltd in 2020 with the intention of beginning co-production of Rick's television series for the BBC.

The most recent book written by Rick was published in September of 2021 and is titled Rick Stein at Home. Rick takes you inside their home kitchens in a way that he has not done in any of his previous books. He does this by sharing the dishes that he most loves to cook for his family and friends throughout the year.

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