BL-24 - Flipbook - Page 55
ENTREPRENEURS
af昀氀icting the hospitality industry:
“we’re surviving, it’s not desperate,
but nor is it easy.”
What keeps him going? After all, he
could comfortably retire. “I suppose
it’s just that food still gets me really
excited. I mean, I love literature and
I love music, but I’m ashamed to say
that I don’t know enough about them.
Food is what I really know about.”
“I love travelling for
food: it’s such a universal
language, such a passport
to other cultures, that you
don’t need to explain why
you’re there. Everybody
understands.”
And do his still extensive travels
keep him curious, keep him 昀椀zzing
with ideas? “They do. I guess the one
person I aspire to in my travels is
Anthony Bourdain.” Bourdain was an
American chef, author of the bestselling Kitchen Con昀椀dential, and the
presenter of the hugely successful No
Reservations and A Cook’s Tour TV
shows. He took his own life in 2018.
Coincidentally, Rick was in the same
small town in Alsace, Kaysersberg,
the night Bourdain died: it must have
rekindled memories of his father’s
suicide. He looks rueful. “I wish I’d
gone out and had a beer with him,
maybe I could have cheered him up.”
Rick has no plans to stop cooking,
writing, travelling, or running his
restaurants any time soon, and he is
already working on a new book – Rick
Stein’s Cookery Course – even as he
waits for his Christmas book to be
released. “And I love travelling for
food: it’s such a universal language,
such a passport to other cultures, that
you don’t need to explain why you’re
there. Everybody understands.
“I remember once that David Pritchard
and I were in Corleone, Sicily, with
a 昀椀lm crew, setting up a shoot at a
venerable old pasta factory. The big
news that day was that some Ma昀椀a
kingpin had just been arrested after
years in hiding, and someone said to
me ‘oh, I suppose you’re here to cover
the arrest?’”
“‘No’, I replied. ‘We’re just here for
the pasta.’”
RICK STEIN’S CHRISTMAS:
Recipes, Memories & Stories
for the Festive Season
is published by BBC Books,
£28
55
BOISDALELIFE.COM
ISSUE 24
