Quotes from Rick Stein

Lunch is a problem because my office is above our chip shop - everything is fried in proper beef dripping. It smells so good that by 12 o'clock it's hard not to think very lovingly of fish and chips.

Im too keen for people to like me. If I didnt care so much, I would be more decisive. I spend a lot of time concerning myself with what other people will think of my actions, which makes me very indecisive.

One thing I don't like is those three-star kitchens where they force the cooks to do exactly the same thing again and again. There has to be an element of chance in cookery.

I fished with my dad and my mum was a great cook, although I didnt help out in the kitchen. It was similar with my three boys and my ex-wife Jill.

To me theres nothing nicer than a pan-fried sole and some fresh salad, keep it simple.

My wife is always telling me that because we zip across the globe so much, we cant really keep a dog. But if youre a dog lover, its a pretty essential part of your life.

I always put on a couple of kilos every time I film a programme. You cant really tuck into a dish and then just leave it.

This is what London's all about for me: good local restaurants. It's what makes a civilised city. For me, as a country boy, it's a real pleasure being able to walk to a restaurant. It seems very sophisticated, somehow.

I love fish soup. Its a deeply satisfying dish. You can use almost any fish for this apart from the oily ones.

My work spaces are the cookery school and all the restaurant kitchens. I eat in the restaurants a lot.

My grandparents were born in England but spoke German and had a German name.

Naturally, as a little boy, I did lots of naughty things. With Les, the son of the farm manager, I was always climbing on high roofs, then tumbling off, or building dangerous networks of tunnels in the hay bales.

People want to go out and eat, theres no question about that. Its not something thats just going to go because of Covid. Its heartening the way people have come back to restaurants.

The fish auctions at Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Scrabster and Kinlochbervie are bustling and successful, with good landings of fish from the north all the way to Norway.

I enjoy mending leaking pipes and dodgy plugs, as it helps me to unwind when my mind is on something else. Im pretty good at it - no one has ever been harmed by one of my repairs.

Unless its Michelin-starred food, people wont pay top dollar for top food so its hard to do good old-fashioned French cooking and get people to pay for it.

One of the reasons for opening the fish and chip shop is that if you want, you can spend less money.

I left England when I was 19 for two years travelling on my own and since then I've always had an urge to go abroad.

In the early 70s I was offered a job on a newspaper. At the last minute the offer was withdrawn because there was a strike on. I bought a nightclub and turned it into a restaurant instead.

South-east Asian salads are a great balance of salty, sweet-sour and spicy. Its important to have both pork and seafood, but you can vary the seafood from prawns and squid to crab meat or even small pieces of firm fish such as monkfish, John Dory or gurnard.

I did have a very determined idea of making money. I was quite savvy about that. And that was my most basic lesson. You do have to understand the economics. It's pointless putting in all that work and losing money. If you're not making a profit you're stuffed.

Ive definitely got a sense of not being very good at stuff. Its sort of absurd because, you know, Ive done really quite well for myself, but I still really doubt myself. Its just the way I am.

My boys are Cornish because they were all born there, but Im quite happy just to be an admirer.

I find that the heat from chilli counteracts hunger pangs, which I believe is why it's so popular in the developing world, so I have a very spicy Vietnamese pho for breakfast.