Rick Stein: 'Oh God, I've had a lot of therapy'

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The chef talks about his restaurant business and laying off staff during the lockdown, his two marriages and how his father’s bipolar disorder affected his childhood

In March, Rick Stein travelled to Australia to check up on the two restaurants he has there. He intended to stay for a couple of weeks, but he is still there, sitting in front of his computer screen. It is first thing in the morning for me, but it is the evening for Stein, and he is planning to go to the pub. He was hoping to make it back to the UK early next month, but his flight was cancelled. So, from his house in Sydney, he is watching as the pandemic wreaks havoc across the UK’s restaurants, including his own.

It must be stressful, I say. Stein smiles and rubs his hand over his head. “It can be a bit frustrating because I don’t get told everything that’s happening back at base,” he says. “I have to keep jumping up and down, saying: ‘Hey, I’m still here!’” He laughs a lot, and I can’t tell if this is just his affable style, familiar from his TV cookery programmes, or a nervous defence mechanism.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/39uqS4A

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