Do we like Rick Stein?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Nothing harmful found in his words or acts and a CBE for his work, but the record is thin and there are a few dents.
Stein is the bloke who turned a Padstow seafood restaurant into a hospitality group that employs more than 600 people. He was made a CBE in 2018 for services to the economy. He also has a long love affair with Australia: he says he first came here at 19 and that what he found “changed me”.
His most recent bit of awkward headline came in early 2025, when he told The Telegraph he felt “a bit sorry” for Gregg Wallace. Wallace had stepped back from MasterChef while his producers investigated alleged misconduct, and he denied all of it. Stein added “I don't like sleaziness” and said he was not a nasty person, which reads as sympathy for a mate rather than a defence of the alleged behaviour.
The dodgier moment for his business was March 2020. The Daily Mail reported that the group would not pay staff after 21 March, and a company message said it could not afford to. The managing director then said all 600 staff were furloughed, hours worked would be paid in full, and paying wages in the meantime could force permanent closure. It was a pandemic-era scramble that plenty of employers had, but it was a bad look.
On the harm check, nothing turned up. In 2019 he told the Radio Times he thought “we're better as part of the European Union than not”, citing his father's views. I found no reporting of him campaigning against LGBTQ+ or trans people, women, migrants or the climate, and no sign of him working with people who do. I didn't dig into his full back catalogue of interviews, so that's a gap rather than a clean bill of health.
Lately the story is mostly money. Accounts to the end of 2024 showed group revenue down 5.4 per cent to £30.4 million, with deeper pre-tax losses at his main companies. The managing director called on the Chancellor to ease pressure on employers. Meanwhile Stein is still on screen, filming the Australia series with First Nations-led grain farms and oyster growers among the stops.
The good stuff is more about the work than a cause. He has a CBE, a career that put regional seafood on the map, and a series that celebrates migrant food traditions and First Nations-led farming. I couldn't verify specific personal charity work from a dated source, so I'm not counting it.