This was published 5 years ago
My travel life: Rick Stein, chef and restaurateur
By Sue Williams
Chef Rick Stein of Bannisters, Mollymook, NSW.
Rick Stein, chef/partner Rick Stein Bannisters by the sea in Mollymook and Port Stephens, NSW, who's also appearing at the State Theatre in Sydney on April 4 to discuss his career and his travels through the world's great culinary regions.
NUMBER OF COUNTRIES VISITED Too many to count as I've been lucky enough to travel for six months in every year filming for my television programmes.
AISLE OR WINDOW Window business class, aisle in economy.
ANY PASSPORT MISHAPS I left my passport at home in the UK a couple of times, it costs a bit to bike it up to Heathrow from Cornwall!
MY LAST TRAVEL DESTINATION I went to Paris for the weekend with my wife Sas [Sarah Stein], it was a surprise, but the main reason for going was to visit the Musee d'Orsay with a Van Gogh exhibition and a much-loved seafood bar by the Marche St Honore called L'Ecume St-Honore. L'Ecume means sea spray.
MY NEXT TRAVEL DESTINATION IS Phuket in Thailand, staying at the resort Twinpalms for a week then on to Mollymook to be at my restaurant.
I'M REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO the beach restaurants near the hotel, particularly noodle and egg stir fry.
WHAT I REALLY WANT FROM MY NEXT TRIP IS a really atmospheric villa in Provence to film cooking sequences for my next BBC TV series Secret France.
I LOVE TO TRAVEL BECAUSE since reading Graham Greene's book of short stories, Ways of Escape, about travel as an antidote to the blues 40 years ago and Bruce Chatwin's The Songlines, about nomadic man's relative happiness compared to people who stay put and cultivate the land, I really feel that travel is essential for wellbeing.
MY TRAVEL PHILOSOPHY IS above.
THE ONE TRAVEL MISTAKE I ALWAYS MAKE IS having a list of essentials to take and things to do to the house before I leave but always leaving it too late into the phase of getting to the airport in time and rarely tick off the items on the list.
THE ONE THING I REALLY DO GET RIGHT WHEN I TRAVEL is taking a very light cabin bag and always putting my main luggage in the hold. Why people are so paranoid about losing their luggage, I don't know. I never have (tempting fate there!) or is it about saving 20 minutes waiting for your luggage? I find that's an excellent time to catch up on my emails.
IF I HAD TO SIT IN THE MIDDLE SEAT THE OTHER PASSENGERS I'D WANT ON EITHER SIDE OF ME WOULD BE ... basically, I don't like talking to people on the plane, unless it's Sas, so maybe a couple of Chinese film stars who don't speak English.
THE ONE FAMOUS TRAVELLER I MOST ADMIRE is Joanna Lumley, because she seems to get more interesting personal observations about where she is than anyone else.
THE ONE FAMOUS PERSON I'D LIKE TO TRAVEL WITH IS Joanna Lumley, because of the above!
I CAN'T STOP GOING BACK TO the Italian convent-turned-palazzo Il Convento di Santamaria di Constantinopoli in Diso, Puglia. Until recently, Puglia was considered rather a scruffy part of Italy. But not anymore. The combination of rugged, arid countryside and the blue Adriatic plus the Convento, which has really good local cooking and unusual and memorable decor, much of it primitive art, is completely satisfying to both me and Sas.
HOTELS ARE an endless source of fascination to me, being in the hospitality business myself.
I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO GO TO Tbilisi in Georgia. Apparently it's beautiful with the most wonderful cuisine.
I'VE NEVER WANTED TO GO TO Las Vegas. Actually I went there in the mid-1960s and no matter how many people say it's wonderful, it ain't for me.
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