Rick Stein Books In Order

Publication Order of Cookbooks

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Rick Stein is an English chef and television personality that has written over a dozen books about food. Stein owns multiple restaurants.

+Biography
Rick Stein was born in 1947 in Churchill, Oxfordshire. Stein was one of five children that lived on a farm with his parents. The author’s father was a managing director whose work at a distillery in London kept him away from home for most of the week.

Stein’s father was a very charismatic man. His intelligence and charm always stood out. However, Stein doesn’t believe he ever saw those sides of his father, though he doesn’t necessarily blame the man.

Stein believes that his father expended so much energy out in the world trying to charm the people he met that by the time he came back home, he had nothing left to give to his children.

The author believes that their strained relationship nurtured his depressive attitude, not to mention the low self-esteem that plagued him for so long. Because Stein never felt wanted as a child, he believes he was driven to try and overcompensate as an adult.

The author attended Wells Court Preparatory School, Wells House, and Uppingham School. In secondary school, Stein studied history, English, and geography and failed miserably in all of them.

He eventually finished his education at a cram school in Brighton and then secured a position as a chef at the Great Western Royal hotel (Paddington) after partially training in Hotel Management with British Transport Hotels.

As a young man of 19, Rick Stein had to deal with the suicide of his father. The tragedy left him far more shaken than he expected and it wasn’t long after that he migrated first to Australia, and then to New Zealand and Mexico, doing odd jobs along the way.

Things could have taken a dangerous turn for the author. But his time in Mexico gave him an opportunity to reassess his priorities. He realized how poor his attitude towards education had been, eventually deciding to enroll at New College, Oxford from where he got his degree in English.

For a little while, Stein operated a nightclub that was known more for its curries than anything else. But a series of brawl compelled the police to shut it down and take Stein’s license.

Fortunately for the young man, he had a restaurant license which he used to operate his own eatery at which he worked as the head chef. That first establishment eventually became ‘The Seafood Restaurant’ and it opened the way for Rick Stein to secure four more restaurants, this on top of a cooking school, a bistro, and a café.

Rick Stein believes that every challenge he encountered in life prepared him to achieve the success for which he is known today. The author might have only partially completed his training in hotel management but the experience instilled in him the knowledge he needed to run his own kitchen.

His journey to renowned celebrity chef was fraught with so many detours because the author couldn’t figure out what he wanted to be. That might explain why he secured a job in insurance during those early days.

The author insists that the closure of his nightclub was arranged by local pub owners who were jealous of the popularity of his establishment. The restaurant Stein eventually opened with his business partner only came into being because both of their mothers showed a willingness to bail them out financially when things got tough.

It took five years for Rick Stein’s first fish restaurant to become a true success. Stein was married to his first wife Jill at the time. They had three sons together and she eventually became his partner, running the business while Stein focused on the kitchen aspect of the restaurant, this after his partner left.

The marriage lasted two decades at which point Stein’s affair with Sarah Burns, an Australian publicist led to divorce. The affair rocked Stein’s life when it finally came to light, with the public hounding both him and Sarah to the point of insanity.

But Stein and Sarah eventually married, proceeding to open another restaurant together. The author’s television career was unexpected. It all began when he appeared on the ‘Floyd on Fish’ show in 1985 as a guest chef.

The success of his guest appearance was such that the BBC saw fit to offer him his own shows which have, over the years, included ‘Rick Stein’s Taste of the Sea’, ‘Far Eastern Odyssey’, and ‘Fresh Food’ to mention but a few.

The author’s publishing career progressed hand in hand with his television career. Each new television series that aired was often accompanied by a book. The first one was published in 1989. Stein hasn’t stopped writing since.

For a little while, his temper threatened to derail his success. At one point, Stein got into such a heated fight with a man who punched him in his kitchen that they would have fallen in the harbor if people hadn’t separated them.

The man sued Stein but then dropped the case. The incident was a wake-up call for the chef and author who realized how easy it would be for his temper to destroy everything he had worked so hard to create.

+Rick Stein’s India
This book is about curry. People have spent the last several years attempting to discover the secrets of India’s most famous delicacy. Some people do not even know what it is while others cannot decide just how thick and aromatic it should be.

Rick Stein takes readers along on his travels to India as he answers the most popular questions surrounding curry.

+Under a Mackerel Sky
Rick Stein grew up in Oxfordshire in the 1950s. His parents were enthusiastic people who loved their children and Rick enjoyed more freedoms than most. But as he matured, the author began to take careful note of his bipolar father’s unpredictable moods.

Rick always felt like he weathered the brunt of the man’s episodes. Still, he was struck with sadness when his father committed suicide. So he fled to Australia. This book looks at the journey that Rick Stein took from disillusioned youth to successful chef.