Rick Stein

Rick Stein is one of the most notable celebrities in chef jackets in Great  Britain with numerous books and television series to his credit, as well as four  restaurants, a patisserie, a delicatessen, a school of seafood cookery, as well  as a hotel in Padstow, a fishing port on Cornwall’s north coast. Rick has cooked  for Prime Minister Tony Blair at Number 10 Downing St; for French President  Jacques Chirac; as well as cooking for Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee, which  was attended by all of her past prime ministers. Rick was awarded the Order of  the British Empire in 2003 for his services in promoting West Country  Tourism.

Rick attributes his success to his philosophy that there is nothing more  exhilarating than a fresh fish, simply cooked. It is his enthusiasm for seafood  which led him to launch his first television cookery show, Taste of the  Sea, in 1995. Since that time, he has made eight more shows – the first four  exclusively about seafood. Then he made two television series entitled Food  Heroes about small food producers who are passionate about the quality and  taste of what they grow and make. After taking a leisurely cruise in white  aprons on a canal barge through the canals of southern France, Rick wrote a book  and started a television series entitled French Odyssey, about the  produce and recipes of rural France. This project was so enjoyable and  satisfying that it led Rick to further Mediterranean Escapes adventures  by Land Rover and ferry through Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Majorca, Puglia,  Catalonia, Turkey, Corfu, and Morocco which were recorded in a book and  television series. Rick’s quest sought to answer the question of what makes  Mediterranean cuisine so special by highlighting the vibrancy and color of the  local dishes he encountered. Rick’s latest adventure, in 2009, was a Far  Eastern Odyssey through Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Bali, Sri  Lanka, and Bangladesh, where Rick celebrated the light, spicy, healthy flavors  of the local cuisines. Rick’s current project is a book and television series  dedicated to Spanish cuisine, which is due to come out in 2011.

In the past few years the BBC has commissioned Rick to make several  documentaries not related to food. These include Betjeman and Me, which  celebrates the life and work of the popular English poet who loved Cornwall;  Rick Stein & the Japanese Ambassador, in which Rick traveled to Japan  in chef uniforms to learn about Japanese seafood cookery; and Rick Stein in  du Maurier Country, which was a tribute to Cornwall novelist Daphne de  Maurier. Rick also starred in the BBC special Memoirs of a Seafood Chef and last month he starred in Rick Stein — Food of the Italian Opera about Italian cuisine and opera. Rick’s philosophy about food and eating is that  cooking and eating are generous activities, which ought to be taken seriously  yet at the same time should resound with joy. All of his books and television  shows emphasize the quality of food, and are committed to sustainable fishing  and good farm husbandry.