Rick Stein on his accidental journey to become a restaurateur, his enduring love of fish and the best dish he's ever eaten

Desert Island Dishes

My guest today is Rick Stein. A highly requested guest, I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did recording it. Rick is, of course, a chef, restaurateur, cook book author and television presenter. He has written over 25 cookery books, a memoir and made over 30 television programmes. His latest cookbook, Simple Suppers is out now. It has been nearly 50 years since he first opened The Fish Restaurant in Padstow, an area of Cornwall he fell in love with at a young age and has made his home.

Despite his successes, Rick describes himself as an accidental restaurateur – who never planned on a career in food. And yet how lucky we are that his dreams of running a nightclub were quashed by the local authorities and led instead to the Stein restaurant empire we know today.

He is the man who could pretty much entirely be credited with bringing an appreciation of fish to the UK masses, something he says he didn’t set out to do intentionally, it just made sense at the time. Despite his obvious success, Rick has said, “I’ve definitely got a sense of not being very good at stuff. It’s sort of absurd because, you know, I’ve done really quite well for myself, but I still really doubt myself. It’s just the way I am.”

Simple Suppers is out now, available at all good bookstores.

And don't forget if you want to enter our Fortnum and Mason giveaway with the chance to win one of their Magic of Christmas Hampers worth £300 sign up for the newsletter via the website www.desertislanddishes.co and I will be sending out more information.

Thank you to Georgie my producer for all her hard work and thank you for listening!

xx

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