FO O D & D R I N K | R I C K S T E I N
Rick Stein is ripping up the rulebook in his new cookbook The chef talks to Prudence Wade about cooking for his family in lockdown, putting his own spin on traditional dishes and why simple food is best.
Rick Stein has won countless accolades
Although Stein’s background is in French
for his food over the years, but one of his
cooking – a cuisine full of strict directions
greatest achievements came during the
on how things should and shouldn’t be
first lockdown of 2020.
done – he ripped up the rulebook in many of the dishes here. “I’m thinking about my
His wife’s 98-year-old grandmother, Betty,
mother’s risotto, because it’s not a proper
had gone off her food – until Stein started
risotto,” he explains.
hosting weekly family dinners. “She made an exception for my food,” the 74-year-old
“But I thought that’s what we do cook, that’s
says with glee. “She had lots of it, she really
what the kids really like and I like for the
tucked in. If we cook, we all love it if it’s clear
kids. I’m not saying it’s a proper risotto, it’s
people enjoyed what you’re cooking. And
more a rice pilaf, but my mother would call
a 98-year-old tucking in with great gusto
it her risotto.”
was quite special.” The book is peppered with stories and Stein spent five months of 2020 in Sydney,
recipes from friends and family too. “I’ve
when the pandemic meant he couldn’t get
got three sons [Edward, Jack and Charlie]
back to his beloved Cornwall. The chef “feels
and two step-kids, Zach and Olivia, and
bad” in saying he enjoyed the lockdown, because
“everywhere,
people
it was really nice how they all wanted to
suffered
At Home. He describes it as “fairly scruffy
contribute recipes, I didn’t interfere at
enormously” – but last year, Covid-related
food” – the kind of meals you’ll throw
all”, Stein says.
restrictions were eased earlier in Australia
together in a hurry from whatever you
than the UK, meaning he had the opportunity
have in the fridge. The book is “about what
Luckily, the recipes “were all great”, he says
to spend more time with his family and start
really goes on cooking-wise”, he explains,
enthusiastically – including Charlie’s pad
hosting those weekly dinners.
“as opposed to the slightly upmarket view
kra pao and Zach’s vegan chilli, along with
of how I cook at home. I try to keep it as
cottage pie from his wife Sas [Sarah] and
real as possible.”
dessert from his mother-in-law.
is unnecessary, in a way”. It allowed Stein to
Free from the shackles of fancy meals
Mini essays punctuate the book’s pages,
get back to his roots: cooking dinner for a
or culinary rules, Stein calls this kind of
with Stein’s ruminations on everything
small group of loved ones, revisiting some
cooking “liberating”. Unlike his past books,
from the redundancy of a first course (he
of his all-time favourite recipes.
which tend to be dedicated to a certain
much prefers loading up on fancy nibbles
country, such as France, Spain or Greece,
and then going straight into the main) to all
Staying and cooking in one place also
the recipes are “thoroughly eclectic” – just
the fancy food gadgets languishing unused
led him to write his latest book: Rick Stein
like normal home cooking is.
in his garage.
He doesn’t take this time for granted, saying it taught him “how much the business of life
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