Rick Stein is a British chef, restaurateur, cookery book author and television presenter. He has written over 30 cookery books, a memoir and made more than 30 programmes including 12 cookery series. In 2018 Rick was awarded a CBE for Services to the Economy.
He is best known for a love of fresh, simple seafood and made his name in the 90s with his earliest books and television series based on his life as chef and owner of The Seafood Restaurant in the fishing port of Padstow. As he said at the time “nothing is more exhilarating than fresh fish simply cooked” – an ethos he has both lived and run his restaurants by. Since then, this has grown to include 10 restaurants, 40 hotel rooms, self-catering accommodation, four shops and a cookery school as well as an online business including Stein’s Online Fishmongers. The Stein business now employs over 650 and extends beyond Cornwall with restaurants in Winchester, Sandbanks, Marlborough and Barnes in London. Rick is still at the helm of The Rick Stein Group alongside his ex-wife Jill and their three sons, Edward, Jack and Charlie.
Rick divides his time between his businesses and homes with his wife, Sarah, between Padstow, London and Australia. He and Sarah run two restaurants in NSW, Australia, Rick Stein Bannisters in Mollymook and Port Stephens. A third will open at Coogee Beach at the end of 2025.
Rick is also famed for his pairing of food and travel in TV shows near and far like: Secret France, Road to Mexico and Venice to Istanbul. During COVID, unable to travel abroad he made a series called Rick Stein’s Cornwall which aired in 2021, it proved so popular that the BBC immediately commissioned a second series, which also achieved excellent viewing figures in 2022 and series three followed in 2023.
