Quotes from Rick Stein

I suppose I've got a restlessness about me which is only alleviated by travel and I like being on the road.

The fact is I never intended to be a chef. After Oxford University I had this weird idea of running a nightclub.

I was brought up on a farm in Oxford but my parents always had a flat in London, and we'd go to pretty smart restaurants, so it's always seemed important to eat well.

Going to Goa was a rite of passage for me, because it's where I learnt that you could mix fish with really strong flavours.

In Australia you're not allowed to go down to the beach and eat anything from the rocks. You just can't do it - help yourself to mussels and things like that because there's hardly any left and the government has now legislated against it.

I guess its the same with all children really, they have this sort of pathetic longing to be like their parents were.

On the whole, my dad was a hero, its just that it got really difficult in his depressive phases, very introspective. And I think he took it out on me really.

When I started out in the early 1970s French cooking was really my only serious influence. For the first 10 years of having the seafood restaurant open I went to France, and particularly Brittany, to pick up ideas.

We all know lemon is loved by salmon, but the fish also adores the flavour and acidity of pink grapefruit.

It's no surprise that cream gives pleasure. It feels great when you eat it, and it makes you feel great, too. I read somewhere that cream increases the amount of serotonin you produce in your brain - serotonin being the chemical that makes you feel warm and comfortable inside.

My first work space is my office in the cookery school in Padstow. It looks out over the Camel Estuary. I'm very lucky because I've got this office with the most fantastic view. I love looking out. There's always boats coming and going.

On the surface, our lives seemed idyllic. My four siblings and I grew up on a 150-acre farm in Oxfordshire, and spent every holiday at our other house on the Cornish coast.

My childhood was idyllic to begin with. We lived on a farm in Oxfordshire and my mum used its produce in the kitchen. She made plain, English-style food, cooked exceptionally - it's what I've based my career on.

I particularly like writing on planes. You've got nothing else to do but concentrate.

Once youve got a name, whatever you do is news. If your marriage breaks up of course its big news but even if you have a row with the planners it makes the nationals.

A lot of my customers wouldnt go to a McDonalds but we are all after the same thing in this business: pleasing the customer. I dont know why people get so aerated about it. I like McDonalds.

I do have some guilty pleasures. I'm very keen on mayonnaise, so that's a shame, as I'm always battling with my weight. But I do love a plate of langoustine or lobster with dollops of mayonnaise.

I dont think Ill ever stop working, its what I do even though I dont have to - thats one of the pleasures of having your own business.

We did a dish called seafood thermidor, which was, essentially, a glorified fish pie. It's great because you don't use much fish in it. It's all sauce and potatoes, but people loved it! It kept us afloat.

As a child, I was embarrassed by my dads effusive episodes, but I suppose I got used to living with someone who was intermittently sad.

The bully mind is not capable of loving or respecting others nor can it love or respect itself. Life's subtleties and the means of survival require its pretense of both these qualities.

I have met vegetable growers who offer seasonal produce grown for taste rather than the ability to survive weeks in cold storage; meat producers who rear fantastic rare-breed pork, lamb and beef; and delis that stock local produce that will never find its way into supermarkets because it is not made in bulk.

I am particularly fond of Malaysian food but strangely its not that well known in Britain.

My father Eric had a magnetic presence. He was about 6ft 4in, with dark hair and pale blue eyes - and very attractive to women.