TRIGGER WARNING: This article discusses mental health. Reader discretion is advised.
Rick Stein has been internationally recognised as the king of seafood, but there is a lot about the renowned chef and MasterChef Australia guest judge that people don’t know, including his ability to overcome a mental health battle.
“I guess a lot of things that happen to you in your youth, you learn to come to terms with as you get older,” Rick, 77, tells TV WEEK. “And I am apt to tell younger people suffering depression that it will get better.”
The Cornwall native lost his father, Eric, to suicide when he was just 18 years old which catapulted him into a dark place, but his passion for cooking gave him purpose, and his dad’s memory lives on in Rick’s food as he credits him for his love of seafood.
“My parents were really good domestic fish cooks,” he recalls.
Rick had a love hate relationship with academia in his youth but was able to find his true calling in the kitchen – and for those who didn’t believe in him have eaten their words (and probably his food with delight) as the man with over 30 cook books, 10 restaurants, multiple cooking shows and business ventures has more than negated their theories.
“I think the net result of feeling inadequacy in most people is an insane desire to prove them wrong,” he explains. “Nothing is more satisfying than having done so.”
Despite recent health scares and even undergoing a lifesaving heart operation in 2023, he has no intention of slowing down, joking he doesn’t feel the pressure to, even at his “advanced age.”
“I’m excited to be doing some special events at Bannisters along with more TV and another book or two,” the father of three teases.
Rick first came to Australia at age 19 where he fell in love with the country and has since set up the beloved Bannister’s hotel and restaurant chain with locations in Mollymook and Port Stephens in New South Wales, venues dedicated to showcasing the fresh and local produce of the South Coast Sea.
Tonight, the talented chef returns to MasterChef Australia, which this year felt a bit different as it is his first judging alongside a sea of fresh new faces, and without his dear friend and fellow judge, Jock Zonfrillo who passed away in April 2023.
“It was a real blow to lose Jock because not only was he a very accomplished chef, but he was also a personal friend, whose career I have been following for years,” he tells. “I do think the new team have stepped up enormously filling the huge gap that was left by Jock’s passing.
Rick will guide contestants through an intense seafood themed elimination challenge, with the worst dish going home and the remaining participants forming the Top 12 of the series.
“Every time I appear on MasterChef Australia it is a great pleasure,” Rick says. “I do think the [participants[ are incredibly stimulated by the competition and all of the past MasterChef winners and contestants have all said that it was a very important experience in their life.”
And outside of MasterChef and building an empire, Rick is just like the rest of us.
“I am currently watching Baby Reindeer,” he reveals.
You and me both Rick – and the rest of the world!
If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, help is always available. Call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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