Quotes from Rick Stein

There was a fantastic old shack I used to go to. It didn't look much from the outside but this man was selling the best stuff ever. He'd just take the catch and cook it up with butter, lemon and salt and then bung some chips with it and it was delicious.

We have all these restaurants and the worry is that they have to deliver the same quality.

There is something wonderful about the way you glaze a fruit cake, nonchalantly drop some orange on as a topping, dust the sugar on top of a sponge cake or fan the apples on a tart.

If you want to eat my fish, you have to come to Padstow. It's like the Med - people want local fish in a local restaurant. I think it tastes better in Cornwall.

To live the first five years of your life feeling that you are valuable is a wonderful thing and, if you don't have it, then you spend the rest of your life trying to find it. I think my mother realised this and tried to compensate for my father's extreme preoccupation with himself.

I passionately believe now that the best thing you can do for your children is make them feel loved and make them feel special. To live the first five years of your life feeling that you are valuable is a wonderful thing and, if you don't have it, then you spend the rest of your life trying to find it. I think my mother realised this and tried to compensate for my father's extreme preoccupation with himself.

You might say that Britain is a world leader in cream. No other country makes the range of creams we have, and I'm not talking about any low-fat, no-fat nonsense. There's single, double, extra-thick, whipping, sour and clotted. To those, I suppose we can add crme frache from France, mascarpone from Italy and smetana from eastern Europe.

In my eyes, baking and pastry-making is like a science - all the measuring of quantities and temperatures.

Its such a diverse culture with Chinese, Indian, Malay Eurasian and all points in between so wherever you go in Malaysia youve got fascinating food.

It's nice to see some fresh herrings on the fish stand.

Most of the telly I do only has one camera and the reason you have to cook it twice is you have a close-up, so you see what is happening really close up and then you have a wide shot, which is like standing back so you see the whole fish and the kitchen and, like it or not, you have to do it twice.

People feel very strongly about restaurants if theyre involved in them. It tends to take over your life for good and bad.

I've always been pushy as far as the business goes.

I like to have fish and salad - mackerel, Dover sole or gurnard, and I usually pan-fry it or use the barbecue. I make salad with avocados, tomato, lettuce and spring onions, with an olive oil and red wine dressing.

I like to have a few staff round for a glass of wine although if I'm feeding people I try and leave my glass alone, as it doesn't improve my cooking.

I eat out a lot, so being at home is just great. I usually make a chicken rice recipe that I picked up in Thailand years ago. The chicken has to be boiled before adding in chillies, ginger, soy and white pepper. Then you make a kind of pilaf. Its delicious.

Its challenging getting people to pay the right money to eat really good food and finding great people to work for you.

Our seas do have fish in them. We have to change our eating habits, the type of fish we tend to go for. Pollack is fine, that type of thing.

I fell in love when I was 21, after returning from Australia. It lasted for about two years before she dumped me. It was, in retrospect, a really wonderful thing because it made me very poetic and melancholic.

I think human beings thrive on communication, and pubs and restaurants are a great way of communicating, a great way of enjoying each other.

Communities such as Auchmithie, Sandend, and even Wick once thrived on herring fishing. But it led me to ruminate on the likely fate for most of our coasts - with the decline of fishing many of the coastal communities are destined to become charming but lifeless exhibits of past endeavour.

You find if you go into a Cafe de Commerce, in any French town, you always get the same bloody salad: lots of lettuce and some meat and dressing thrown on and thats it.

I do think there is continuing sense in people buying recipe books from somebody they trust.

Wherever I go I'm always looking for recipes and ideas.