By Elliott West
“I think that my dad was really quite tough with me at times”.
Rick Stein
Introduction
Rick Stein is best known for being one of the most famous chefs on British television. His television career spans over forty years since he first appeared on a Keith Floyd cookery programme in 1985. A show where Keith mistakenly calls him Nick. A culinary professional whose knowledge of fish is second to none and whose restaurant chain spans from Padstow, Cornwall to London. A lover of poetry and literature, Stein has fronted thousands of hours of cookery programmes spanning across the globe and written numerous cookery books. His latest venture is his stage tour, An Evening with Rick Stein which will tour the country from March and Rick Stein’s Food Stories on the BBC.
However, what is little known about Rick is his relationship with his father Eric. A man who suffered from bipolar disorder polar disorder and committed suicide when Rick was only 18 years old. A troubled relationship that Stein believes was mainly due to his father seeing much of himself in his son. Eric whose childhood spanned the First World War, received prejudice for his German roots and was often called a “filthy Bosch”.
A Mental Hell
Growing up in the leafy and affluent Walton-on-Thames, Eric grew up in the shadow of the news that the liner Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915. Ignorance of this news caused many locals to be suspicious of the Stein name. It was a look-over-your-shoulder moment with many cruel looks, whispers, hurling missiles and a tirade of insults in the street. A human being is vulnerable to abuse and this must have left deep mental scars on Eric for the rest of his life.
Thwarted ambition may also have contributed to Eric’s demeanour. When he was 18, Eric won a place at Oxford to study medicine but was denied his place when his family strings were pulled. Instead, Eric was encouraged to ditch the idea and work in the family business, a distilling and chemical company. Clues to the cause of his mental illness. So worried was his wife Dorrie about her husband’s condition that she used to hide all the knives and tablets in the house due to his erratic behaviour.
Dorrie had her ghosts in her closet. A woman who got married at a very young age. Hitched to escape an unhappy family home where her father Frederick was an adulterer and a drinker. A self-made businessman who married Mary, a missionary’s daughter. A relationship that Mary’s father Henry Parkes would have disapproved of. A Wesleyan who travelled to China in 1962. A man who based himself in Canton and lived in the community. As a Westerner, he was treated with mistrust and suspicion. A country that was rife with disease led to him burying two children. A scandal that led to Henry being petitioned and returning to Britain.
The Tragedy
In 1965, Eric Stein was out walking with Rick’s sister Zoe. Walking near their family home, the two neared Trevose Head, a National Trust beauty spot. Suddenly their father ran towards the cliff and jumped to his death. Eric who had just retired from his role as Managing Director at Distillers Company, was involved in the marketing of the controversial birth defect drug Thalidomide. Rick later learned that this was the last of several suicide attempts which ultimately led to Rick moving to Australia where he worked in an abattoir and a naval dockyard before travelling to New Zealand and Mexico. A death that Rick believes has made him want to be more like Eric’s positive side. He has now forgiven his father but still thinks that their relationship would have been closer if he had lived longer.
