BL-24 - Flipbook - Page 53
ENTREPRENEURS
were really good cooks, so I had come
across the books of Elizabeth David
and Julia Child.”
“I would buy 昀椀sh fresh from
the quay every day: not for any
reason other than it was there
and it made sense.”
quite famous for being part of the
Dutch Resistance during the war and
even wrote a book about it Requiem
For The Resistance, 1988. He and
his wife had a house next door to
the restaurant, and – because he was
Dutch and really knew 昀椀sh – they
became regulars: I suppose they were
our 昀椀rst discerning customers.”
Floyd calling Rick “Nick” throughout:
“I like to think that he had just
temporarily forgotten my name”,
recalls Rick, “but he could be quite
mischievous, and he might well have
been taking the piss.”
His pro昀椀le, and his status in the food
world, was raised still further when
His early menus were simple. “Grilled
lobster... grilled anything, really! I had
inherited a salamander grill from the
previous owner; apart from that I just
had a six-burner stove.
“And the simplicity of my menus back
then wasn’t based on some high-昀氀own
culinary philosophy: I didn’t know
how to cook complicated dishes, and
anyway I didn’t have the equipment.
And I would buy 昀椀sh fresh from the
quay every day: again, not for any
reason other than it was there and it
made sense.
“But, in a way, that was the
restaurant’s great virtue: Padstow
always got busy in the school
holidays, and we were open, we
were right on the front, and we were
cheap.”
Britain in the 1970s was not exactly
a piscatorial paradise, unless you
wanted your 昀椀sh battered, deep-fried
and served with chips.
Even the 昀椀shermen didn’t eat much
昀椀sh: Later, Rick recalls visiting
Newlyn to 昀椀lm Taste Of The Sea with
director (and long-time friend) David
Pritchard: “David said ‘why don’t we
昀椀lm a piece in there?” pointing to the
Fishermen’s Café.
“So we went in, asked what fresh 昀椀sh
was on the menu and they said ‘we
don’t sell 昀椀sh! This is a 昀椀shermen’s
café.’”
He did 昀椀nd a few loyal diners in
Padstow, though. “There was a guy
called Herman Friedhoff, he was
Rick Stein in Padstow
He and Jill, his 昀椀rst wife, ran the
restaurant together: Rick in the
kitchen, Jill front-of-house. By the
1980s, the long hours and hard work
had eventually paid off, and both Rick
and the restaurant were starting to
attract attention from further a昀椀eld.
his journalist friend Richard Barber
turned up for dinner with an editor
from Penguin Books, who asked
whether he would like to write a
seafood cookbook for them. “So I did,
but I wasn’t sure what anyone would
make of it.”
Including the TV chef Keith Floyd,
whose 1985 BBC show, Floyd on
Fish, had launched his career. Floyd
had been to The Seafood Restaurant
several times and told his producer
(David Pritchard again) that they
should 昀椀lm in Padstow with Rick.
Pritchard and Floyd set up a table-fortwo on an old 昀椀shing boat at which
Floyd, garrulous and bow-tied, and
Rick, slightly nervous in his chef’s
whites, shared a bottle of Alsace white
and a locally-caught sea bass that Rick
had cooked in his kitchen.
The section they 昀椀lmed in the
restaurant kitchen was notable for
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BOISDALELIFE.COM
ISSUE 24
Keith Floyd, British chef and broadcaster
