This much I know: Rick Stein, author

The best advice I ever got was to work smarter, not harder.

In my new book, From Venice to Istanbul, I take a journey in search of great dishes.

In places like Greece and Turkey, people still buy fresh ingredients and cook every day. It is so life affirming. That is something we have had to relearn over here.

Somewhere in the early 20th century we lost touch with that way of cooking and eating so it is exciting to see so many people returning to it now.

In school, I wasn’t very academic. I did my best but I was more interested in rugby.

When I was little, my parents had a holiday house in Cornwall and my father was a keen fisherman. He bought a share in a lobster boat in Padstow and that is how I developed a love of fresh seafood.

My father died tragically when I was 19 [he committed suicide]. It took a long time to come to terms with that.

It did have a knock on effect on me. I was thrown into turmoil and ran away to sea.

I ended up in Australia where I began to read a lot and realised I wanted to do some formal academic study. I was lucky enough to get into Oxford University to read English.

The biggest lesson I’ve learnt is not to expect too much and to stick to something which you know gives you pleasure.

And, as it says in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the first rule of the universe is don’t panic. As a young man, I did panic. I had great anxiety about the world and about death.

My interest in food came on me as a bit of a surprise. I started cooking as a way of paying the bills. Early on, I did some hotel management training, and later, I decided to open a night-club in Padstow.

We got into some trouble with rowdy behaviour and had to close down. I nearly went bankrupt and we re-opened as a restaurant instead. Only then did I resort to cooking.

Growing up in the 1950s on a farm in England, my parents had a great love of food so at least I knew cooking was something I was capable of doing, but it wasn’t a calling.

I believe things happen for a reason. To a certain extent you unwittingly make things happen.

My first television appearance was on Keith Floyd’s show. He made it okay for men to cook. I was terrible on camera.

I recently saw one of the first clips, in the mid 1980s. I look very serious and was not very humorous. Keith called me Nick. He said ‘Nick, Rick.... you young chefs are two a penny.’

Keith was larger than life and great fun. I was really taken with the television experience. Ten years later, his producer David Pritchard approached me with an idea to do a series about my life as a cook in Padstow.

I’m awful at compartmentalising my life. Luckily, I have good people backing me up.

I’m quite good at writing. When I’m not working or writing, I like to swim in the sea.

The trait I most admire in others is decisiveness.

I don’t think my indecision has so much to do with being weak as it does with wanting to wait for as much information as I can to come my way, before I decide what to do about something. Either way, it drives people around me demented.

My biggest fault is also my greatest strength. It is my complete passion for food. It means I can never stick to a diet.

I do try to keep fit. I recently got one of those Fitbits that monitor your exercise. You set yourself a task, say 10,000 paces a day. It has been quite life changing.

I’m an early morning person which isn’t great in my line of work although I no longer have to work long restaurant hours.

If I could be someone else for a day I’d quite like to be Van Morrison.

He may be known for being a bit blunt but his commitment to his art and the way he sings and the images he conjures up show he is totally involved in what he does. Like me and cooking.

I don’t believe in an afterlife. This is it.

* Rick Stein’s From Venice to Istanbul - Discovering the Flavours of the Eastern Mediterranean is out now published by BBC Books.